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TO WOMEN OF THE 
BUSINESS WORLD 






















I 


TO WOMEN OF THE 
BUSINESS WORLD 


BY 

EDITH JOHNSON/ 




PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

1923 








H Ik 


. 

COPYRIGHT 1923, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 


1 


PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS 
PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A. 


OEC -7 1923 v 

© C 1A7 06220 i 



TO 

MARIE, MY SISTER 

WHO KNOWS THE JOYS AND THE STRUGGLES, 
THE ASPIRATIONS AND THE STIMULATING EX¬ 
PERIENCES OF AN ACTIVE BUSINESS LIFE, 
THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 





i 







PREFACE 


Today there are more than nine millions of women 
in industry. 

Some of these women are just beginning their work 
in the business world. Others have been in business 
two or five or ten years without having made much 
progress in it, and almost daily they are asking them¬ 
selves the reason why. Still others are steadily forging 
ahead; they are well started on the road to success. 

Since entering the business world some fifteen years 
ago, I have pondered a good deal over the unequal 
struggles, the ambitions, the needs, the limitations, and 
the capabilities of women in business. Few days pass 
that one or more of these women does not come to me 
or write to me, asking how she shall choose a vocation, 
how she shall make a start in industry, or, if she is one 
among those who are making no appreciable progress, 
how she may become more efficient and how she may 
get on in the world. 

From trying to advise many individual women, I 
have conceived the idea of putting the results of my 
observations, investigations, and experiences into a book 
that will be available to all. 

This book, therefore, contains a series of intimate, 

vii 


Vlll 


PREFACE 


straight-from-the-heart talks to women, touching upon 
their manifold problems from the moment the need or 
the desire to enter upon a gainful occupation is felt to 
the fulness of success in a chosen career. 

Work, like health, is normal, as every woman dis¬ 
covers when she finds the work for which she is best 
fitted and masters the fundamentals of that work. 
In this book I explain how an aspiring woman may 
estimate her fitness for a given task with reference to 
its requirements in the way of health, training, intellec¬ 
tual, moral, and emotional qualities; how she shall make 
application for a position, and how she shall fill it with 
the greatest success for herself and the maximum of 
satisfaction to the individual or the firm to whom she 
sells a day’s work for a day’s pay. 

Not the least factor in a woman’s success is her 
apparel, and the woman who understands the art of 
dressing in a manner appropriate to her work and her 
position, has mastered one of the fundamentals of 
commercial success. This woman, too, must realize 
that there is a code of manners for the counting-room, 
the store, and the business office as definite and as 
inviolable as the code that is current in a fashionable 
drawing-room. Nor will a clever woman in business 
underestimate the value of a speaking voice that has 
been modulated to fall pleasantly on the ear. 

Where one personality is born, ten more are made. 


PREFACE 


IX 


Who that has seen a timid, unprepossessing, ineffectual- 
looking girl transformed within a few years into a 
finished woman of the world, poised, charming, the 
mistress of every situation, and, it may be, quietly 
dynamic, will question the possibility of building a 
personality that will open every door to success ? 
American women have a genius for this type of self¬ 
development, a matter of such paramount importance 
that no work of this nature would approach complete¬ 
ness without a fair treatment of it. 

One of the chief dangers to woman in business is 
that of bodily fatigue. She who knows how to eat 
for strength as well as satisfaction, how to choose her 
recreations wisely, how to rest and how to secure the 
maximum of physical and mental benefit as well as 
pleasure from her vacation-time is the woman who will 
stay in the game longest and who will reap the sub¬ 
stantial rewards. Continuity of effort, so essential in 
all business, is possible only to the woman whose health 
and strength are dependable. 

It is not enough that a woman shall make money. 
She must know how to spend it wisely, how to save a 
proper proportion of her earnings, and how to secure 
and safeguard her future by good investments. In this 
book I have outlined a plan of saving for small and 
large incomes alike, and a plan for the control of expen¬ 
ditures through the building and operation of a budget. 


X 


PREFACE 


I have avoided glittering generalities. It has been 
my constant aim to offer the reader simple, concrete 
information, advice, and suggestion. Taken as a whole, 
it will furnish a definite philosophy of business life 
and success. 

From such contacts as I have had with women in 
business, I have come to know that many of them are 
hungry for constructive ideas which they can appro¬ 
priate to their own lives and careers. These women 
are eager for success. They are seeking to find happi¬ 
ness in their work, and naturally enough, they want to 
secure as compensation for their efforts the maximum 
of income. 

Bookstalls and libraries are well supplied with 
volumes of information and inspiration for men who 
have recognized their need for such aids to the develop¬ 
ment of their talents. Heretofore, the needs of women 
have been ignored or neglected except in the daily 
press, and in a few women’s magazines that have 
treated their problems in a rather casual way. 

This book has been written with the desire of 
supplying the needs of the millions of women in indus¬ 
try and the professions who are valiantly taking as 
their motto, “ What man has done, woman can 
do likewise.” 

E. J. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter 1. 3 

Woman’s Place in Business. Selecting a Vocation. 
Weighing the Requirements. Choosing an Employer. 

How to Apply for a Place. 

Chapter II. 39 

The Problem of Appropriate Dress. Manners in the 
Office. The Charm of a Good Speaking Voice. Pre¬ 
serving the Illusion of Youth. 

Chapter III. 67 

Avoiding Familiarities. No Place for Niobe in Tears. 

The Bigness of Little Things. 

Chapter IV. 89 

Successful Salesmanship. Personality, the Golden Key. 
Character and Reputation. 

Chapter V. HI 

Endurance is Essential. The Value of a Hobby. Rest, 
Recreation, and Vacations. From Office to Drawing¬ 
room. 

Chapter VI.. • • 165 

The Value of a Bank-account. Keeping a Budget of 
Expense. Preparing for the Rainy Day. What Are 
Safe Investments? 

Chapter VII. HI 

The Business Woman and Her Family. The Worker 
Who Has a Child. All the Comforts of Home in One 
Room. 


xi 









XU 


CONTENTS 


Chapter VIII. 193 

Punctuality is Important. Self-improvement in Spare 
Time. Opportunities: How They Are Made. Friend¬ 
liness Pays Dividends. How to Take Discipline. If 
You Should Lose Your Job. 

Chapter IX. 227 

Training for Leadership. Can Woman Do Man's Work? 
Women and Big Business. 

Chapter X. 247 

Just a Word to Employers. 





CHAPTER I 


WOMAN’S PLACE IN BUSINESS 
SELECTING A VOCATION 
WEIGHING THE REQUIREMENTS 
CHOOSING AN EMPLOYER 
HOW TO APPLY FOR A PLACE 



TO WOMEN OF THE 
BUSINESS WORLD 

CHAPTER I 

woman’s place in business 

Woman is in business, and she is there to stay. 

The voice that has insisted “ there is no place like 
home ” for her grows increasingly faint with time. 

More than a quarter of a century ago, thousands of 
young women in this country began to realize that there 
was not enough work at home to occupy them and hold 
their interest after they left school. So, they went out 
to find or to make new places for themselves in industry, 
joining those women who already had been forced into 
business by necessity. The majority of those young 
women found an absorbing occupation and an oppor¬ 
tunity for self-development. They made acquaintance 
with a world that had been an unknown quantity to 
their mothers, and not the least of their rewards was 
a weekly or a monthly pay envelope containing money 
all their very own. 

There was a time when a girl could remain at home 
indefinitely and be self-supporting. There was flax to 
spin, cloth to be woven, meats to be cured, candles to 

3 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


mold, bread to make, washing and ironing to be done, 
and garments for the whole family to be cut and sewed. 

But, that very girl of a former generation who could 
remain at home with dignity, performing her share of 
the necessary labors, no longer finds a place for the 
employment of her energies within her own four walls. 
With all the heavier activities of the home taken care 
of on the outside, she can do no more than be a helper, 
and sometimes not even that. 

Where can she go? 

There is but one answer. She must take her place 
in the great world of trade and commerce and carry 
her share of the burden there. 

This change of scene for her activities came with a 
suddenness that rather shocked the world. And to this 
day there are timorous persons still asking if she is 
occupying her proper place. 

The whole world marvels at the speed of her self¬ 
adjustment. After a few years of training and experi¬ 
ence, she is filling her place in business as easily and 
naturally in most instances as if she had been there 
for centuries. Her employer, likewise, is becoming 
reconciled to her. Ten years ago, one heard men 
speak of woman as “a necessary evil in business.” 
She was given habitually the lesser task and seldom 
was she trusted with responsibility. Some employers 
remained sufficiently sentimental to say that they could 

4 


WOMAN’S PLACE IN BUSINESS 


not send her out in the rain, nor could they bear to 
think of her working after nightfall. Within the past 
decade, however, those same men have discovered that 
a woman bent on earning a weekly wage has few fears 
of the dark, and that certain members of the sex are 
just as fearless and as game as men when it comes to 
accomplishing a given result. 

The increase in the number of women in business 
within the past thirty or forty years is nothing short 
of revolutionary. 

In 1910 more than 80 per cent, of the males over 
ten years of age in this country were engaged in gainful 
occupations. This percentage represents only a 3 per 
cent, increase in the previous thirty years. 

In 1910, 23 per cent, of the females of this country 
were occupied in gainful occupations, an increase from 
the year 1880 of 58 per cent. 

The necessities of war greatly augmented the num¬ 
ber, and according to the latest estimates over 9,000,000 
are now employed in industry. 

Since the war, men are thinking about women in 
business with a new seriousness, and there is hardly an 
industry of any importance that does not employ a 
number of women as clerks, book-keepers, saleswomen, 
stenographers, and workers at machines. Every year 
witnesses women entering upon occupations that here¬ 
tofore have been considered suitable only for males. 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


They are “ claiming all labor for their province,” fulfill¬ 
ing the prophecy of Olive Schreiner, and in the majority 
of cases, they are finding health, self-respect, and happi¬ 
ness as well as material gain. 

Too seldom does the world pause to consider how 
much kinder and more human business has become 
since woman invaded the market-place. 

Her presence there has done more, I believe, than 
labor’s strikes and struggles to shorten the working-day 
and to improve the conditions under which work is 
performed. The eight-hour day, to a very considerable 
extent, is of woman’s making, the 5 o’clock closing 
hour and the half-holiday per week in June, July, and 
August where the Saturday afternoon off is not the 
general rule. Man will extract the last possible moment 
of effort from his own sex where he is instinctively 
more considerate of woman’s lesser strength. 

Well-ventilated, well-lighted, and sanitarily kept 
workrooms, rest-rooms, and other creature comforts 
provided in factories, stores, and office buildings are 
largely the results of woman’s presence in industry. 

When a woman goes out into the world to get a 
living, she does not leave her sense of order or her love 
of beauty at home. On the contrary, she takes it right 
along with her to protest against dark, ugly, and unsafe 
quarters. Often this protest is a silent one, though it 
is none the less eloquent. She suffers mental and spirit- 

6 


WOMAN’S PLACE IN BUSINESS 


ual depression if she is not made actually ill by 
unwholesome surroundings, and she is apt to leave 
one place in order to look for better conditions in 
the next. 

When an employer sends his agent to discover the 
cause for her dissatisfaction, he learns, sometimes to 
his surprise, that the women in his employ do not like 
the kind of workroom he provides. If he is an astute 
person, he perceives that it will be to his own selfish 
advantage to improve conditions; that women are made 
distinctly unhappy and that they cannot be expected to 
deliver their best work in the same dingy, dirty quarters 
to which men, formerly, did not give a thought. 

The impulse that moves a woman to lay a white 
cloth on the table, to keep her silver brightly polished, 
to garnish a dish before bringing it to the table, to draw 
the most comfortable chair under the reading-lamp, to 
open the window and let in the fresh air of the early 
morning, to plant a flower in her dooryard, is producing 
its effect in the business world. 

Her passion for orderliness and cleanliness is felt 
appreciably in the iron street and in the grim market¬ 
place, happily so much less grim than formerly by 
reason of her gentle presence and her civilizing 
influence there. 

It is difficult for women, however they may try, to be 
wholly impersonal in business. For countless genera- 

7 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


tions the personal element has colored their lives. 
Hence, they have traded to some extent, at least, con¬ 
sciously or unconsciously, on their sex. They have 
demanded certain things simply because they were 
women, and for the same reason, their demands have 
been met. Therefore, while they have been securing 
benefits for themselves in business, they have secured 
similar benefits for their brothers as well. 

Women exhibit greater patience than men with detail 
work, and, therefore, much of it has been turned over 
to them. They are more biddable than men, and when 
they like their employer, they have a genuine sense of 
personal devotion to him. You often hear one woman 
worker remarking to her associate, “ Isn’t the boss a 
perfect dear ? ” The very presence of a woman who 
cherishes this kindly feeling for the man who gives her 
work and pays her for it, has a softening influence upon 
him, and hence, upon the whole market-place. 

Men and women work together more harmoniously 
than men, alone, or women, alone, for that matter. 
Through their daily associations, they are learning each 
other’s limitations, each other’s potentialities, each 
other’s problems, and each other’s viewpoint as men 
and women never were able to understand in social 
and domestic life. 

How fine a thing is this increasing camaraderie 
among men and women! At least, it will go a long way 

8 


SELECTING A VOCATION 


toward eftecting the realization of one writer’s prophecy 
that five hundred years hence there will be no quarrels 
between the men and women of the world. 

SELECTING A VOCATION 

“ How shall I find my work ? ” 

How many young women have asked themselves this 
question, only to have it answered with an echo. 

The few are called in terms so unmistakable that 
they cannot be misled. Having marked inclinations and 
strength in the fundamentals of character, they gravi¬ 
tate easily and naturally toward their proper line of 
work. The great majority, however, have no well- 
defined inclinations. They find it very hard to choose 
a vocation. One line of effort looks about as attractive 
or unattractive as another. Very often they permit 
circumstance to be the deciding factor with them. 

Is it surprising that countless young women seize 
upon their first opportunity to make a dollar that comes 
to them? 

Unacquainted with themselves and their qualifica¬ 
tions; unacquainted with the conditions, requirements, 
and compensations of the work they believe they want 
to undertake; unacquainted with the world at large, 
they start out bravely, expecting to learn from experi¬ 
ence, that often effective and sometimes cruel teacher. 

9 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


Not infrequently, years have passed before they begin 
to make an appreciable progress at their task. 

Many are the causes of misfits in industry. Chief 
among them are ignorance, unpreparedness, and lack of 
a definite purpose. Immature judgment and the want 
of a wise person to advise at the critical moment are 
responsible for numerous mistakes. Eager though 
parents may be to guide their children into the right 
channels of effort, they are not always prepared to point 
them to the right road. 

Sometimes a girl will take up an occupation for no 
other purpose than to be near a chum. Mary, who took 
a course in business college and who now is rejoicing 
in a weekly pay envelope, assures Jane that “ it is such 
fun in the office, and the boss is awfully nice.” So Jane, 
without pausing to consider seriously whether she is 
best fitted to become a milliner, a seller of ready-to- 
wear clothing, a teacher, an architect, or a stenographer, 
enrolls in the business college recommended by Mary. 
She experiences difficulty with spelling in business col¬ 
lege—she never thought it worth while to bother with 
it much in the grade school—and, to her amazement, 
her subsequent experience in the office, colorfully 
described as “ loads of fun,” proves rather trying, 
a genuine disappointment, in fact. 

Occasionally a parent is too narrow-minded or too 
jealous, strange as that may seem, to assist in the 

10 


SELECTING A VOCATION 


development of a daughter’s talent. She does not want 
her daughter to be better educated, more successful, 
happier, and more admired than she has been. 

“ Selling ribbons was good enough for me before 
I married, and what was good enough for me is good 
enough for you,” declares Mildred’s mother, who can¬ 
not sympathize with or understand her daughter’s 
desire and ambition to study medicine. To Mildred’s 
mother, it is “ all foolishness ” for a woman to try to 
be a doctor, and she tells Mildred that if she ever 
secures the necessary education, she will have to work 
her way through school. 

How is Mildred going to secure that education? 
She is living in a small town, hundreds of miles distant 
from an university and medical college. Her family 
has not the funds to support her while she takes her 
university and medical courses even if they were in 
accord with her desire. If she is a girl of exceptional 
strength, courage, and initiative, she will find a way. 
There is a great variety of work to be done in all college 
towns, and once she is launched, she is not likely to fail. 

Then, there is that other type of mistaken mother 
who overestimates her daughter’s ability, and who 
forces her into a work for which she has neither the 
talent nor education. Because Margaret likes to scrib¬ 
ble, and has taken one or two prizes in school essay 
contests, her mother is convinced that Margaret is 

11 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


destined to become a successful writer. Or, Helen’s 
parents squander thousands of dollars on piano lessons 
when she would be so much happier if they would per¬ 
mit her to study home economics or nursing. 

Extremely difficult is the situation of a woman who 
longs to follow a line of work for which there is no 
market in her locality. If she is self-reliant and 
possesses courage and initiative, she may seek her oppor¬ 
tunity among strangers. Not every girl is prepared 
to strike out in a field that is wholly unfamiliar to her 
without great cost to herself. Hundreds of girls who 
would do well in their home towns are attracted by 
what appear to be the brighter prospects of a city. 
Without adequate preparation, without funds or 
friends, without knowledge of the city or its ways 
of life and work, they exchange their comfortable 
home-town environment for the perils, the hazards, and 
discomforts of life in a city on pitifully small incomes. 

If a girl is determined to try her fortune in a strange 
city, let her take stock of herself carefully, and let her 
have resources sufficient to carry her through that 
period of hunting work which likely will fall to her lot. 
The decision to try the larger place is not to be 
made rashly. Where one confident girl succeeds in a 
measure beyond her expectations, another, perhaps, 
will go down. 

Impatience is another pitfall. So eager is youth to 

12 


SELECTING A VOCATION 


make a beginning that it often insists upon going into 
a business or a profession without adequate preparation 
for the work. Thousands of girls go in for stenography 
without knowing how to spell, to punctuate, or to para¬ 
graph. So limited are their vocabularies that their 
employers must make a conscious effort to keep within 
the range of the words that they know. Others ask 
to be placed as saleswomen without having mastered 
the bare fundamentals of salesmanship. They seem to 
believe that customers will sell themselves if the 
goods are displayed. Still others ask for teachers’ 
certificates when they cannot yet speak the English 
language correctly. 

Social ambition, the desire to be a “ silk-stocking ” 
or “ white-glove ” worker, and to follow a vocation that 
appears to have “ class ” to it, have kept many a clever 
young woman from rising in the financial scale. A poor 
music teacher, eking out a miserable existence, might 
have been a $ 5000 -a-year buyer for a garment shop 
or a department store if, at the outset of her earning 
career, she had been willing to take her place behind 
the counter and learn merchandising and salesmanship. 
She could not quite bring herself to do that, although 
she always felt the call to sell things ever since she 
and her playmates had played “ store.” So, she chose 
music-teaching because it was “ respectable,” hate it 
though she did. Perhaps in middle life, when she finds 

13 * 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


herself clinging desperately to the outer fringe of 
society, when she is invited only to large affairs to which 
everybody is bidden, she will begin to realize that the 
social standing of the impecunious hanger-on is a pretty 
worthless asset; that it will not pay the rent, the grocer, 
the dry-goods store, or the doctor’s bill. 

This is not to say, however, that environment is 
not an important factor, one that should be taken into 
account, particularly by a woman of fastidious tastes. 
Women of scholarly inclinations enjoy the associations 
they find in school or college, in the world of music, 
in institutions or organizations affecting the public 
welfare, in medicine and the law. 

A timid woman may prefer to work in seclusion, that 
is, in the workroom of a millinery or dress¬ 
making establishment. A more adventurous spirit 
delights in meeting the public continually. Certain 
types of women achieve their greatest success in busi¬ 
ness where their associations are with other women. 
Others manage better with men. The woman who 
possesses the attributes of courage, self-reliance, 
resourcefulness, and initiative may develop into an 
executive. Her sister, who, though patient and indus¬ 
trious, is reluctant to assume responsibility, does well 
to join the ranks of the employed. She would find her¬ 
self harassed and exhausted in a situation demanding 

14 


SELECTING A VOCATION 


from her the bearing of heavy responsibilities, or the 
faculty to create. 

Physical equipment is an important factor in select¬ 
ing one’s work. Not all women are able to retain their 
good health when engaged in work that keeps them nine 
or ten hours indoors. They would do better to choose 
soliciting, the selling of some widely used commodity 
from door to door, collecting, or playground work. 
Drug-growing is a new occupation for women, and one 
that is not overcrowded. Bee-keeping and poultry¬ 
raising are out-of-door occupations which hundreds of 
women are making to pay. 

Nervously constituted women should avoid noisy 
places, if possible, where there is constant commotion 
and stir. The very woman who could not stand the 
strain of nursing, might make an excellent librarian. 
The woman with a large frame and strong body liter¬ 
ally is wasting her precious strength when she under¬ 
takes clerical work. 

Many occupations and nearly all of the professions 
followed today by women have several phases in this 
day of specialization. Where one phase of a work may 
not be altogether congenial, another may be wholly so. 

Take, for instance, the profession of nursing. A 
woman who is restive in the close confinement of the 
sick-room in the course of nursing private patients, 
may find the fullest satisfaction when she attaches her- 

15 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


self to a visiting nurses’ staff. Another who does not 
secure the most favorable opportunity for the exercise 
of her talents and her knowledge in a hospital may 
make an outstanding success in public health work. 

Or, let us suppose that a woman’s particular talent 
is for writing. In that event she may become a news¬ 
paper reporter, a feature writer, a literary or dramatic 
critic, a woman’s page editor, a short story writer, or 
an essayist. She may become a publicity director for a 
business enterprise, or a theater. Advertising is open¬ 
ing a large and lucrative field to women writers. A 
comparatively new line is that of writing collection 
letters, wherein woman’s natural tact may be given 
full play. 

Social service in its various branches is attracting 
an increasing number of women who find a deep satis¬ 
faction in laboring for the betterment of humanity 
while securing for themselves a living wage. Girls 
possessing qualities of leadership find congenial work 
in campfire and girl-scout movements. Widely differ¬ 
ing tastes may find scope for effort as settlement 
workers, clinical psychologists, police-women, probation 
officers, reformatory workers of various kinds. 

The study of vocations is tremendously fascinating 
and the analysis, discussion, and presentation of them 
constitutes a literature in itself. Every woman who is 
looking forward to the time when she will become 

16 


WEIGHING THE REQUIREMENTS 

self-supporting, or is looking for an opportunity better 
suited to her abilities and ambition than the position 
she now holds, will find it to her advantage to study this 
new literature carefully. Through it she may find her 
own particular niche more easily, perhaps, and it may 
open up to her, possibly, new vistas of activity. 

While through it she is searching for a solution of 
her own problem, its perusal will quicken her appre¬ 
ciation of the courage and enterprise of thousands of 
women who have blazed new trails for other members 
of their sex. She will comprehend, too, how broad is 
the scope of women’s present industrial and professional 
opportunity and activity, and it will give her a glimpse, 
also, of what the future America may be holding in 
store for the once “ weaker sex.” 

WEIGHING THE REQUIREMENTS 

Know thyself. 

This is the first and great commandment to the 
woman planning to enter upon industrial or profes¬ 
sional life. 

Self-analysis is by no means an easy process. 
Nevertheless, every woman who is expecting to go into 
a gainful occupation should make an effort to measure 
the physical, intellectual, moral, and emotional require¬ 
ments of the work she is likely to undertake; to deter¬ 
mine something of her natural aptitude for it, and to 

2 17 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


decide whether or not she has had such experience and 
training as fit her for the task of her choice. 

Work has certain physical requirements as to size, 
strength, endurance, and freedom from the tendency 
to disease. A woman may have the intellectual ability 
and the digital skill to become an expert court reporter, 
yet she may be lacking in the physical and nervous 
endurance to put her ambition into effect without disas¬ 
trous results to her health. She is wise, therefore, 
who directs her energies into another channel where 
the work will be of a less taxing nature and the hours 
not so long. 

Exuberant vitality and more than ordinary endur¬ 
ance are the necessary physical equipment for a career 
in journalism. Moderate energy and vitality, on the 
contrary, serve thousands of women who are filling 
secretarial positions. Needless to say, more than aver¬ 
age physical strength and endurance are required in 
the profession of nursing and for the study and practice 
of medicine. 

Intellectual requirements vary widely. Perhaps, four 
per cent, of women in the United States have very 
superior intellects. These are capable, with proper 
training and experience, of more than ordinary accom¬ 
plishments and sometimes brilliant attainments. They 
have the power to analyze and to reason. They possess 
the gift of judgment. They have good memories, they 

18 


WEIGHING THE REQUIREMENTS 

are quick of comprehension, and often they are gifted 
with creative abilities. Such women may become law¬ 
yers, doctors, ministers, educators, artists, designers, 
writers, and business executives, and, not infrequently, 
they are equal to, or even the peers of, their 
male competitors. 

Another group of women serve successfully in clerical 
and office positions where they work under supervision 
and are not required to display a great amount of initia¬ 
tive. They sell goods over the counter and in ready- 
to-wear shops and departments. They form the 
backbone of industry, performing a vast amount of 
necessary work cheerfully and efficiently. As for the 
women of lesser intellect, I need not deal with 
them here. 

Emotional requirements are exceedingly varied. 
Actresses, singers, speakers, and women who write 
fiction, or what in the parlance of the newspaper office 
is termed “ human interest features,” should have 
developed the emotional side of their natures. The 
“ sob sister ” on the city staff of a daily newspaper 
must have large sympathies, controlled by good judg¬ 
ment. She must “ feel ” a situation before she can 
write it effectively. Only an unselfish and sympathetic 
woman can succeed as a public health nurse. Require¬ 
ments in the field of human emotion may cover a range 

19 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


from earnestness, unselfishness, faith, and loyalty, to 
optimism, enthusiasm, reverence, and hope. 

The quality of courage is invaluable to the woman 
who casts her vote for salesmanship. She who loses 
her “ grip ” after she has been turned down a few 
times should select a position where others will be 
coming to her, not one in which she must be the 
aggressor, unless, indeed, she is determined to overcome 
by persistent and patient effort that lack in herself. 

The quantity and quality of a woman’s initiative is 
another important consideration. A woman who has 
no confidence in herself, who cannot think what to do 
in an emergency, and who is afraid of people, should 
undertake no branch of salesmanship. While she may 
cover a “ run ” on the city staff of a newspaper, she 
hardly will be able to take big assignments where per¬ 
sonal force and resourcefulness are as necessary in the 
gathering of a story as in the writing of it. She will 
labor more effectually at an indoor task where her work 
is “ cut out ” for her than at an outdoor task where 
she will have to develop new business. For the same 
reasons, she will achieve more satisfactory results in 
her own town where she knows the people and is known 
to them than if she were travelling about from place 
to place. 

A great many women are now employed as organ¬ 
izers for nation-wide charities, public health move- 

20 


WEIGHING THE REQUIREMENTS 

ments, church extension, and politics. Such women 
must know how to meet all manner of strange 
conditions, to create situations, and to master them. 
Usually, they must have a talent for organizing other 
women in groups and planning their programs of work 
for them. 

No woman can be too careful, too thoughtful, when 
entering upon a career in the great world of women’s 
activities to select the right niche for herself. 
Misplaced abilities mean a life wasted—worse than 
wasted sometimes. 

Because there is so little vocational analysis and 
guidance, a great deal of talent is smothered by 
uncongenial toil. Happiness is destroyed, health is 
depleted, sometimes ruined, and the end is failure 
and discouragement. 

“ The crowning work of an economical educational 
system will be vocational guidance,” says Roger W. 
Babson, the eminent statistician and authority on 
American business. “ One of the greatest handicaps 
to all classes is that 90 per cent, of the people have 
entered their present employment blindly and by chance, 
irrespective of their fitness or opportunities. Of course, 
the law of supply and demand is continually correcting 
these errors, but this readjustment causes most of the 
world’s disappointments and losses. Some day the 
schools of the nation will be organized into a great 

21 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


reporting bureau on employment opportunities and 
trade conditions, directing the youths of the nation, so 
far as their qualifications warrant, into lines of work 
which seem to offer them the greatest opportunity. 
Only by such a system will each worker receive the 
greatest income possible for himself, and also the 
greatest benefits possible from the labors of all, thus 
continually increasing production, and yet avoiding 
overproduction in any single line.” 

Until the great vocational system which has just 
been started in this country shall have attained the 
place where it will be prepared to work out a woman’s 
problem, unless she has been a student in one of 
those schools which offer “ broadening and finding 
courses ”—the pupils often trying out as many as 
twenty or thirty vocations over brief periods in order 
to discover their best abilities—each woman, for the 
most part, will have to treat her own vocational prob¬ 
lem as best she can. She must weigh her qualifications 
against the requirements, and survey her possible field 
of employment. This is difficult enough if she is facing 
the immediate necessity of earning an income; in which 
event, she is only too likely to take the first place that 
is open to her. 

Not infrequently, a woman is unable to discover in 
herself an outstanding aptitude or talent. Or, if she 
actually makes the discovery of a decided inclination, 

22 


WEIGHING THE REQUIREMENTS 


she may lack the time and money necessary for adequate 
preparation. Effecting a compromise with herself, 
she enters an uncongenial occupation, and having 
started on her course, it seems difficult to make the 
desired change. 

If she has courage to make it, it may involve, for a 
time, a reduction of income. During her novitiate, she 
must sustain herself by the hope and expectation of 
larger gains later on. 

Whenever a woman undertakes a kind of work for 
which she is unfitted physically, intellectually, or tem¬ 
peramentally, she expends more energy on it than she 
would normally. In addition to the outlay she must 
make in the actual performance of the labor, she must 
make an extra appropriation to carry on a work which 
she dislikes. If she is not very wise, she may permit 
herself to become petulant and irritable as well as 
restless and dissatisfied. She will suffer more fatigue 
in trying to fill a place in which she is a misfit in five 
or six hours than if she worked eight or ten hours at 
a congenial task. 

If a woman continues in an occupation that irks her, 
life runs in a “ vicious circle ” something like this: 

Uncongenial effort—inefficiency—dissatisfaction and 
discontent — unhappiness — painful fatigue — lessened 
efficiency—a stultified mind and powers—failure, or at 

the very best, semi-success. 

23 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


If, on the contrary, she engages in a work that is 
thoroughly congenial to her, and one the requirements 
of which she is able to meet, the circle will run some¬ 
thing after this fashion: 

Congenial effort—increasing efficiency—happiness 
and good health—steady progress—complete satisfac¬ 
tion, and finally, success. 

To a woman who finds her true vocation, work is 
almost as natural as eating and sleeping. Seldom is 
she tempted to postpone a task, nor is she tormented 
with the question, “ How in the world can I do that? ” 
Her work becomes the spontaneous expression of her 
talents. Through it she expresses her personality. At 
night she leaves it with reluctance, and in the morning 
she returns to it with delight. Through it, and in it, she 
develops her highest powers, and life for her rises in a 
steadily ascending scale. 

CHOOSING AN EMPLOYER 

Next in importance to the choice of a vocation is the 
choice of an employer, unless a woman establishes 
herself in her own business or works independently in 
the professional class. 

Her health, her happiness, her well-being, to say 
nothing of the progress she will make in her work, 
depend largely upon the character and the ability of the 
man to whom she is directly responsible. Here are a 

24 


CHOOSING AN EMPLOYER 


few plain questions which she should ask herself before 
she closes an agreement with him, unless, of course, 
she is in immediate need of money and is compelled to 
take for the time being any position that she 
may secure: 

Is this man who is willing to employ me progressive ? 

Has he the money to pay my salary, or may he fail 
any day? 

Will there likely be an opportunity for me to grow 
with the business, or will I be kept a routine worker 
and a drudge ? 

Why has he not developed a woman already on his 
force to fill this place instead of looking around on 
the outside? 

Is his failure to do so a sign of inherent weakness 
in the organization? 

What is likely to be his attitude toward a worker? 
Does he belong to that class of men who try to keep 
their workers “ down,” or does he foster ambition in 
them ? Does he want to see a worker grow ? 

There is quite as much difference in the quality of 
employers as in the quality of employees. 

Some men have no idea other than to secure a worker 
as cheaply as possible, and then to hold her down to a 
dead level of work and compensation. They have no 
personal feeling for, or interest in, an employee, and 
when the door closes in the evening, their workers 

25 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


are out of their minds and lives. Other employers 
not only establish short hours and fair wages, but help 
their workers in a score of ways. They like to see 
them healthy and happy-looking, well dressed and well 
housed. They regard their businesses not only as insti¬ 
tutions for making money, but as plants where they 
may give a greater or lesser number of men and women 
the opportunity to labor, to make a living, and to 
develop their abilities. They take a tremendous pride 
in using their own talents for this purpose, and in so 
doing, they have the satisfaction of knowing that they 
are advancing the cause of civilization in this world 
of ours. 

The employer who has the right sort of spirit likes 
to point out a bright, clever, wholesome-looking girl, 
or a fine, upstanding, capable-looking woman, saying, 
“ You see Miss Smith? She works with us.” 

Time and again, I have observed that this type of 
man always uses the preposition “ with ” instead of 
“ for.” He is the kind of man who takes care of his 
faithful employees in case of illness, or in time of mis¬ 
fortune or death. In his eyes, labor is not a commodity. 
The laborer is a human being, always to be treated 
as such. 

When a woman works for a considerate employer, 
she is spared nervous wear and tear. She goes to her 
office in the morning in anticipation of a happy day. 

26 


CHOOSING AN EMPLOYER 

She is not in the situation of the woman whose nerves 
are torn to shreds wondering when the next explosion 
of temper is to take place. She can concentrate on her 
work, and she wastes no energy in her effort to recover 
from the effects of a storm. 

The most desirable employer is not one who makes 
no comment, the assumption being that the work for 
which he is paying is thoroughly satisfactory to him. 
Every worker, it matters not the occupation she follows, 
and regardless of how far she may have advanced, 
profits by wise, constructive criticism. Where such 
criticism is the rule in business, the workers realize 
just as handsomely on it as do the heads of the firm. 
Fortunate is the woman when she finds employment in 
one of those institutions where meetings are held 
periodically to criticize the work of each department, 
where opinions are exchanged freely, and there is a 
friendly effort to bring the output to the highest possible 
excellence. Too many workers are suffering stagnation 
because their work is accepted without question, because 
their methods never are made the subject of discussion, 
because no effort is put forth to assist them to advance. 

One of the finest experiences in the life of a woman 
worker is to be able to look up to and respect her 
employer, to be able to say to herself, as well as to 
others, “ I work for the finest man in the world.” 

That very condition is a constant source of inspiration 

27 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


to her. Without having to put forth a conscious effort, 
she will give the best that is within her to the work 
placed in her hands. 

The ideal relation between the employer and his 
woman worker is one of mutuality, of ready cooperation. 

When a woman is so fortunate as to have a good 
employer, she should make every effort possible to fit 
into his business so skilfully and so competently that 
after a time she becomes indispensable to him. Work¬ 
ing under an alert, progressive, broad-gauge man, daily 
entering into his problems so far as that is possible, 
trying to take care of details for him in order that he 
may have his mind freed for the larger things, on the 
one hand, is a human service that hardly can be paid for. 
On the other, it often is a liberal education for the 
worker. She will grow under the direction of the mas¬ 
ter mind that manages the business, and in the event of 
his death, or important changes in the management, she 
will be ready to fill an important place. 

HOW TO APPLY FOR A PLACE 

Making application for a position is something of an 
art. The best prepared and most efficient woman can 
destroy her chance to secure a desirable situation by 
one false move. 

If an employer advertises that he has a place to fill, 
and that candidates for it must apply in writing, he does 

28 


HOW TO APPLY FOR A PLACE 

not want them to call. Usually, he prefers that the 
letter of application shall be written in longhand. Hand¬ 
writing is indicative of character, the degree of 
education, and culture. Many deficiencies that would 
not be apparent otherwise are revealed on the 
written page. 

In that moment when a girl sits down to write a 
letter of application, she is likely to realize limitations 
and deficiencies, if she realizes them at all. Her letter 
will be her introduction to the employer, whether for 
good or for ill. Likely he will compare it with many 
others. The letter that makes the most favorable 
impression upon him, is the one he will follow up. 

The applicant for work cannot expend too much 
thought or care upon her letter, or be too fastidious 
about the appearance of the finished product before it 
leaves her hands and is placed in Uncle Sam’s mails. 
The letter should be written on plain white paper of 
good quality, with a margin at the left side. Neatness 
is a recommendation in itself. There should be no 
crossed-out words. The most careful attention should 
be given to punctuation, and the effect of a mis¬ 
spelled word may be fatal. 

A good letter of application usually includes six 
elements: the statement of application for a position; 
the qualifications of the candidate, including education 
and experience; references; information of a personal 

29 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


nature; the salary expected; and the request for a 
personal interview. 

The letter of application is, to all intents and pur¬ 
poses, a sales-letter, for its object is to sell the appli¬ 
cant’s services. It is well for the applicant to establish 
the point of contact immediately by saying that she 
wants the position that may be vacant. 

A prospective employer wants definite information, 
not generalities. He wants to know whether or not 
the applicant has had business experience, and if so, 
where and how she had it. The names of the firms or 
persons the applicant has worked for should be given, 
the nature of the work she has done, the length of her 
service, and the results that she has accomplished. If 
she has had no experience, it is better to say so frankly, 
adding that she has the greatest desire and willingness 
to learn. 

An applicant should be equally definite in stating her 
educational qualifications. She should name the schools 
or universities she has attended, what courses of study 
she has pursued, and whether or not she com¬ 
pleted them. 

In giving references, the names, positions, and 
addresses of men or women who will certify to the 
applicant’s ability and character must be included. 

The applicant should tell her age, nationality, the 
state of her health, whether or not she is married; and 

30 


HOW TO APPLY FOR A PLACE 


some firms like to know whether or not a woman 
lives at home. 

In stating the amount of salary expected, it sometimes 
may be said with propriety that advancement is desired 
within a reasonable period, depending, of course, upon 
a demonstration of fitness and efficiency. 

When asking for a personal interview, the applicant, 
if she is not limited as to time, may offer to call at any 
hour suiting the prospective employer’s convenience, or 
she may state what hours she is free, giving her address 
and telephone number, so that the person she is address¬ 
ing may get in touch with her without delay. 

The following letter may be changed and adapted to 
many needs. It is offered only as a working model: 

Mr. John Smith, 

ooo Broadway, 

New York City. 

Dear Sir: 

Will you please consider me an applicant 
for the position of stenographer which you 
advertised in today’s News? 

My experience includes three years with 
Nelson and Hill, ooo West 48th Street, and 
one year with John W. Wright, 00 Madison 
Avenue. 

At present I am unemployed, owing to the 
removal of my employer from the city (or, 
to the reorganization of the firm). 

31 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


I am a graduate of the Central High School, 
class of 1917, and of the Blank Business 
College. 

At shorthand I have a speed of 125 words 
a minute, and I am an accurate and rapid 
typist. I have had experience in filing and in 
general office work. 

My references, by permission, are my 
former employers, also, the First National 
Bank of this city, Mr. James A. Horner, 0000 
Harrison Street, and Mr. Milton Brown, 00 
West 25th Street, both of whom can speak for 
my character, and for my general ability. 

I am twenty-four years of age, unmarried, 
and of American parentage. 

If you will grant me the favor of a personal 
interview, I will call at your office at any time 
you may name. 

Very truly yours, 

An employer looks through his letters of appli¬ 
cation, selects a few that are the most promising, and 
notifies the writers that he will see them personally. 
If he fails to specify the time and place of the inter¬ 
view, the applicant should telephone him for an appoint¬ 
ment. Once that is made, she should take care to 
present herself on the minute, and to look her best. 

Applicants for positions frequently are judged by 
the smallest details. A certain young woman applying 

32 


HOW TO APPLY FOR A PLACE 


for a place she was eager to secure forfeited her oppor¬ 
tunity because she offered the prospective employer a 
cold, clammy hand. Another was politely turned 
away because her shoes had not been shined. Still 
another, who could not understand why an employer’s 
interest suddenly turned to indifference and dismissal, 
never suspected that her fate had hung on wrinkled hose. 

The first young woman, whose hand was clammy from 
nervousness and apprehension, should have tried to 
warm and dry it, or she should have managed, if pos¬ 
sible, to avoid shaking hands. Of the second and third, 
it may be said that an employer is entirely justified in 
making the assumption that no woman of well-ordered 
mind and disciplined nature is likely to neglect a single 
detail of her toilet. If it does not show care on the 
day when she applies for a position, certainly she is not 
likely to present a neat appearance after she has 
secured a job. 

A pleasant voice, a cheerful expression, a readiness 
to answer all questions promptly and intelligently, and 
not too great an eagerness to talk freely, especially of 
personal matters, will stand a woman in hand at such 
a time. If in a former position she has made a serious 
mistake which has been reported through her refer¬ 
ences, when confronted with her error, she must be 
able to say with sincerity and conviction that she will 
not repeat the offense. 

3 


33 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


What a happy arrangement it is that the woman 
who may not serve the needs of one office may fit 
perfectly into those of another, and that men’s ideas of 
what constitutes usefulness and efficiency in a woman 
vary almost as widely as their ideas of what constitutes 
a good wife. 

The majority of men in business want production. 
They demand the highest degree of efficiency of the 
women in their employ. Others, curiously enough, 
make a point of selecting beautiful women. Look in on 
one of their offices and you might imagine that you 
had come by mistake to a beauty show. They require 
something beside speed and efficiency and a common- 
sense devotion to business. They seemingly have an 
eye for a decorative value in a world otherwise harsh 
and unadorned. 

Another man will not take a beautiful woman into 
his employ. He holds that beauty and brains are not 
compatible. Or, it may be that in some period of his 
experience, he has found a beautiful girl a disturbing 
element in his business, distracting the attention of the 
young men on his force. 

A man who has a great deal of work in his office and 
who cannot afford to hire many helpers is likely to 
choose strong, nerveless young women who can work 
incessantly from 8 o’clock in the morning until 5 with¬ 
out showing fatigue. Occasionally, one encounters in 


34 


HOW TO APPLY FOR A PLACE 


business a man who prefers to employ older women. 
Perhaps, he believes them to be more reliable, more 
given to concentration on their work, and having fewer 
distractions on the outside. Or, all unconsciously, he 
wants an employee who will have infinite patience with 
his whims and humors, who will forgive his small 
exactions, who will see that every object on his desk 
is placed in a certain spot and at a certain angle, even 
to his ash-tray or telephone pad. He expects her to 
have his thermos bottle filled with fresh water when 
he comes down in the morning. She may pay all his 
bills, look after his check-book, select birthday and 
Christmas gifts for his closest friends, send out his 
cards at Christmas-time, and think ahead in a thousand 
details. This type of man finds the young and thought¬ 
less, though often fast-producing worker, unsatisfac¬ 
tory. You hear him say, “ Miss Jones has been with 
me fifteen years. I’d have to quit business if she 
decided to leave.” Certain employers will take no 
woman who is under thirty, and they have good and 
sufficient reasons for making that rule. 

This world being as it is, under normal conditions, 
there is a place for every clever, conscientious woman 
worker. If she does not find that place immediately, 
she has only to “ try, try, again.” 









CHAPTER II 


THE PROBLEM OF APPROPRIATE DRESS 
MANNERS IN THE OFFICE 
THE CHARM OF A GOOD SPEAKING VOICE 
PRESERVING THE ILLUSION OF YOUTH 







CHAPTER II 


THE PROBLEM OF APPROPRIATE DRESS 

To fit gracefully into the picture, to purchase cloth¬ 
ing within her means, and to attire herself becomingly 
and smartly—these are the outstanding dress problems 
of the woman in business life. 

Twenty-five years ago the problem was one easy of 
solution. The woman working in store or office wore 
a tailored shirt-waist and skirt, and usually a plain 
sailor hat. If, by chance, she appeared one morn¬ 
ing in a frock, her employer and her associates looked 
askance at her, the dressiness of her costume suggesting 
a frivolity of mind that would ill accord with the 
duties of the day. 

But, since the status of a business woman has under¬ 
gone a radical change, and the “ working-girl ” of a 
quarter of a century ago often today is “ our Miss 
Jones,” whose pay envelope is as thick as that of her 
brother employees, the plain, uniform-like garb which 
formerly was considered the only dress appropriate to 
the uses of a woman in an office, has given way to the 
smart frock. Employers no longer disapprove of smart 
dress for their women workers when the latter’s tasks 
are of such a nature, and their business background is 

39 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


one of such opulence, as to suggest the wearing of a 
costume instead of a blouse and skirt. 

The clever woman always keeps in mind her office 
environment when she is shopping. If she is the confi¬ 
dential secretary to a captain of industry, and her office 
hours are spent amid mahogany or walnut furniture, 
richly-toned leather upholstery and handsome rugs, 
her costume should harmonize quietly and inconspic¬ 
uously with her background. As her salary, in all 
probability, is a generous one, she is able to dress 
smartly. Her employer expects her to present an 
excellent appearance, and in a measure, at least, wear 
a dress that harmonizes with the beauty with which 
he has surrounded himself. It is good business for 
a woman holding such a position to dress well. Indeed, 
she can hardly do otherwise. 

A woman buyer for a retail or wholesale garment or 
millinery house dresses with a certain dignity and rich¬ 
ness. She is constantly meeting strangers, either in her 
place of business, or on visits to eastern or foreign 
markets. Members of her firm very properly expect 
her to present an appearance appropriate to the impor¬ 
tance of the house and its financial solidity. She who 
presides over an exclusive millinery shop, or a smart 
dressmaking establishment, must not fail to look the 
part. Though her dress be business-like in character, 
it should be the last word in fashion, her hat and 
accessories, likewise. 


40 


THE PROBLEM OF APPROPRIATE DRESS 


Minor official positions in banks are being held by 
a number of women, who, while appearing in simple 
costumes, must dress up to the Circassian walnut, the 
mahogany, the gleaming marble of the lobby, and the 
importance of the firm, provided they are employed in 
full view of the public. If, however, they are book¬ 
keepers or stenographers, they need not dress in a style 
other than that of other women of their class. 

The best models in suits and dresses are none too 
good for those outdoor business women who sell stocks 
and bonds, life or fire insurance, or who deal in real 
estate. A shrewd woman will not underestimate the 
importance of a first impression, and she, therefore, 
gives meticulous care to boots, gloves, veils, and her 
wrist-bag as well as to suits and gowns. 

Most shops in the country, especially those in big 
cities, now require their saleswomen to wear a costume 
that approaches a uniform, usually a black dress, with 
perhaps a touch of white. The girl who works in a 
bare, bleak office, in a wholesale district, must be careful 
not to overdress. Finery of any sort worn in such 
surroundings appears ridiculously out of place. 

A woman of foresight always takes into account the 
weather in choosing her costume for the day. She is 
careful to look as cool as possible in summer, and 
comfortably warm in winter. 

On the hottest day she may achieve a fresh appear¬ 
ance if she makes the necessary provision for it. She 

41 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


starts the day with a bath, carefully dressed hair, a 
shineless nose, and a composed manner. Never does 
she make the mistake of wearing scarlet, orange, or any 
other bright color, or a woolly-looking sweater, which, 
regardless of fashion, suggests ice or snow. Rather 
does she choose for warm weather a frock of neutral 
color, and if they are in fashion, she may wear light- 
colored shoes. 

For a cold day, the woman in business wears a dress 
of woolen fabric. An executive is likely to suspect 
that his engineer is burning more fuel than otherwise 
would be necessary if the women in his offices did not 
wear transparent blouses or thin dresses when the 
north wind blows and snow lies on the ground. Or, he 
may fear that an invaluable secretary may be seized 
with a cold and thereby become disqualified for her 
work. Men are sometimes positively irritated by the 
sight of feet clad in thin pumps and gauzy stockings in 
rainy weather. The woman worker who dresses in 
accordance with the thermometer commands her em¬ 
ployer’s respect. Then, if she falls ill, he will not 
censure her for carelessness, or become disgruntled and 
remark about “ these women having so little sense.” 
Perfect cleanliness and neatness, and an air of physical 
comfort and repose, are wonderfully pleasing to an 
employer, a fact that no ambitious woman may overlook. 

The woman who asks her employer to release her 

42 


THE PROBLEM OF APPROPRIATE DRESS 


for an hour in order that she may attend a sale, more 
often than not, finds the experience disastrous. Buying 
in a hurry, jostled by excited customers, unable to 
secure the attention of a helpful saleswoman, she finds 
it extremely difficult to select a gown or a hat with the 
calm judgment that should be brought to so important 
a transaction. If she knows exactly what she wants, 
she may secure an extraordinary value. But, if she is 
easily confused and bewildered, she would do well to 
beware of sales. 

A business woman cannot afford to be one of those 
dressed-up-to-the-minute women, who, like so many 
sheep, follow every new turn and twist of fashion, 
unless she is in the clothing industry. She may buy 
a late model, but it must be one exactly suited to her 
own type. If it is not appropriate to her, she does 
well to pass it by. 

Expenditure out of proportion to income is a display 
of bad taste as well as a lack of thrift. The $25-a-week 
clerk or stenographer incites unpleasant comment when 
she appears in her office one morning wearing a coat of 
squirrel or mink. She may be living at home with the 
minimum of expense, or she may have a wealthy and 
generous relative. Those facts, however, will not pre¬ 
vent her being the subject of such unfortunate remarks 
as “How in the world did she get it?” 

The very fact that her clothing is not in accord with 

43 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


her income or her setting directs undesirable attention 
to her, and, it may be, the suspicion of the man in whose 
employ she is. 

Buying clothes is comparatively easy for a slender 
woman, since the majority of the fashions are designed 
for her. For the stout woman, however, shopping is 
difficult. She does well to confine her choice to plain 
colors and dark ones, and to avoid big patterns and stiff¬ 
looking clothes. Her dresses, suits, and hats should fit 
easily. Tight clothing but serves to accentuate her size. 
Large feet and ankles appear smaller in dark-colored 
stockings and shoes. 

A woman who travels much should be careful to 
select clothing that does not crease easily, and that will 
occupy the smallest possible space. She should buy 
hats that will stay in place on her head with little 
adjustment, and that are unencumbered by trimmings 
that gather cinders and dust. Her Pullman robe should 
be dark in color and simple in design. Substantially 
made luggage of good quality is a hallmark of refine¬ 
ment. While suggestion may be useful, experience 
usually helps one to discover how to preserve the maxi¬ 
mum of good appearance and personal comfort with the 
minimum of impedimenta while on the road. 

Color is an important detail in skilful dressing for 
business. The wearing of black or blue may become 

monotonous, yet no colors are so serviceable and so 

44 


THE PROBLEM OF APPROPRIATE DRESS 


unrecognizable. One who must wear a dress through 
two or, perhaps, three seasons, had better choose a 
dark and inconspicuous color. Then she can wear her 
frock as long as it is presentable without impressing 
others with the limitations of her wardrobe. 

One of the greatest actresses in this country, who was 
compelled to practice economy over a period of years 
before achieving stardom and Broadway, wore only 
black or white, or the two in combination. At no time 
in her career, she has confessed recently, was she 
more smartly dressed. 

While I am writing, a young stenographer has come 
into my office to ask where she may find work. Her 
costume consists of navy blue taffeta dress, piped with 
a lighter shade of blue, a cinnamon-brown coat, a red 
hat, black shoes and stockings, neither gloves nor veil. 

What possible chance has the girl to obtain work 
with a good firm and earn the salary she thinks 
rightfully hers? 

A faultily or carelessly attired woman is a liability 
to her employer, and no matter how skilful or conscien¬ 
tious she may be in the discharge of her duty, she will 
fall short of realizing her full value to her firm. The 
stenographer, clerk, saleswoman, or accountant who 
permits herself to appear in a mussy frock, unkempt 
hair, shiny nose, neglected hands and skin, unpolished 
shoes, and run-down heels, is not among the fit to sur- 

45 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


vive. Whenever there is a cutting down of forces, she 
need not be surprised or indignant if she is one of the 
first to go. 

Every woman in business should be a devotee of the 
daily bath, and a convert to frequent shampooing. She 
should experiment until she achieves a smart hairdress; 
and well-kept hands and manicured nails are a part of 
her equipment. She dare not dispense with the daily 
shoe-shine, which she can achieve herself with the 
minimum of expense, since the materials for the care 
of all kinds and colors of shoes are obtainable, and are 
easily and quickly applied: pastes for hard leather, 
liquids for kid, dense powders and wire brushes for 
suede shoes and pumps. Nor should she overlook her 
overshoes, which should be as carefully cleaned and as 
brightly shining as the shoes she wears on sunny days. 
A going over with black liquid polish will restore them 
in a moment. Industrious pressing of blouses and silk 
dresses is the price of neatness. Silk hose should be 
washed after every wearing. Also, they fit better, and 
are not so likely to wrinkle around the ankle as when 
they have been worn a time or two. Scrupulous atten¬ 
tion must be given to snaps and buttons. A frayed 
hem or cuff is unspeakable, and even a loose thread will 
mar an otherwise fastidious toilet. 

Occasionally, the young woman who presides over 
the typewriter, the adding machine, or the switchboard 

46 


THE PROBLEM OF APPROPRIATE DRESS 


will postpone the finishing of her toilet until she has 
boarded the street-car. Then, out comes her nail-file, 
which she plies vigorously, or she may complete her 
make-up within view of the public's gaze. 

One might forgive the diligence of these young 
women in public, if they promptly translated it into 
zeal for their tasks after arriving at office or store. 
But, alas, that does not always happen. They seem to 
be reluctant to perform the rites of the toilet on their 
own time when they can discharge such necessary duties 
on their employers’ hours. 

Neither do they dress their hair of mornings with 
an idea of their coiffures remaining sufficiently perma¬ 
nent to meet the needs of the day. By nine or ten 
o’clock, the structure shows signs of collapsing. The 
“ boss,” who has been reading his mail and sorting 
his letters preparatory to giving his dictation, looks up 
to discover that Miss Smith has disappeared. At that 
very moment, Miss Smith is standing before the mirror 
of the office dressing-room, doing up her hair again 
with as much deliberation as if she were a social 
butterfly. To watch her motions, one might suspect that 
she had at her disposal all morning for that operation, 
and, apparently, it is the very least of her anxieties 
that her employer, who cannot very well summon her, 
may be swearing between his teeth. 

This type of girl “ makes ” a living instead of “ earn- 

47 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


ing ” one. She expects good wages, to be treated like 
a responsible human being, to be shown signal favors 
now and then. If an associate in the office or a superior 
were to suggest that she was a trifler, a time-waster, 
she would reply probably that she was discharging her 
duty as well as the girl at the next desk, which might 
be altogether true. 

This is not by way of saying that a toilet, however 
carefully and skilfully made in the morning, will last 
throughout a day of work. Every business woman 
should keep a fairly complete toilet equipment in her 
hand-bag or an obscure part of her desk. During the 
noon-hour, and before leaving her place of business at 
evening, she should set in order any disarray caused 
by the day’s work. If her work is that of a collector, 
a solicitor, a saleswoman, or a promoter, she should 
take out her powder-pufif and remove the dust and shine 
from her face before entering an office where she 
expects to secure an order, a sale, or an interview. 

The problem of making a good appearance in busi¬ 
ness is not merely one of personal advancement or com¬ 
mercial expediency. The woman who works out a 
scheme of harmonious, beautiful, and appropriate dress 
makes a distinct contribution to society. She provides 
for other women just entering business, or those who 
have not yet adjusted themselves to its exigencies, 
a demonstration of the individual solution of this ques- 

48 


MANNERS IN THE OFFICE 


tion. She proves, moreover, that a woman can be 
lovely in the world of business as well as in the privacy 
of home or of a friend’s drawing-room. 

MANNERS IN THE OFFICE 

Manners constitute one of the most important fac¬ 
tors in our present economic life. They smooth the 
way for knowledge and skill, for talent and for enter¬ 
prise. Select any two persons equal in personal gifts 
and in education, one having excellent manners, the 
other believing that their cultivation is not worth the 
trouble and that they have no particular place in the 
business world. Will not the first progress much faster 
than the second? Does not the ill-mannered person 
work under a heavy handicap? 

It is for each one of us to choose whether our man¬ 
ners shall be good or bad. We have just as much 
freedom of choice in this matter as we have in the 
choice between right and wrong. It is a choice that 
is made more easily, for the boundaries are more clearly 
defined in the realm of manners than they are in our 
moral and ethical life. The code is well established on 
the basis of excluding all that is disagreeable and 
including that which is both pleasant and kind. A 
cultivated woman differs from an uncultivated person 
in that she chooses to use the best and pleasantest ways 
of speaking and acting. Emerson speaks of good man- 
4 49 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


ners as “ happy ways of doing things, each one a stroke 
of genius or of love. ,, And that is precisely what good 
manners are—happy ways. To arise when a caller 
enters one’s office is a happy way, expressing as it does 
the spirit of welcome. To be ready with a pleasant 
smile, a cheerful “ Thank you ” at the right moment, 
will delight all comers. Nothing in life, perhaps, makes 
so large a contribution to human happiness as good 
manners and gracious ways. 

The cheerful, well-mannered employee will have ten 
opportunities for promotion to one that will fall to the 
lot of an irritable, disgruntled woman, if indeed, she 
ever has one. Many a woman who after years of effort 
finds that she remains in her same fifteen-or-twenty- 
dollar-a-week position, might trace her difficulty to a 
serious defect in personal behavior. She is merely 
tolerated, it may be, for the sake of a certain technical 
efficiency she has acquired, or because she is an honest 
and trustworthy worker. “ She is such a good woman 
at heart,” her employer says, “ that I cannot bear to 
let her go.” ' 

Then, the unfortunate woman sheds bitter tears in 
secret when the less efficient but more pleasing young 
woman in her department is promoted over her head. 
She bewails the injustice of employers and wonders 
why nothing happens quite right for her. Yet, how 
often does she take herself to task for her failure, or, 

50 


MANNERS IN THE OFFICE 


comparing herself with a more progressive woman, does 
she make an inventory of her faults ? 

In every office that woman whose duty it is to meet 
those who call, who answers their questions, who 
makes appointments for her employer, and who gives 
out information for him, is an important factor in 
creating the atmosphere that prevails in the place. 

If she receives visitors with a languid and indifferent 
manner, if she replies impatiently to their questions, 
and if she fails persistently to express a willingness to 
ascertain when her employer may be seen or inter¬ 
viewed, one who may not be acquainted with the charac¬ 
ter of the office, or the business and the kind of service 
it is prepared to render to clients and customers, is 
most likely to misjudge it. 

Another woman, on the other hand, who cheerfully 
and intelligently replies to questions, who sees that 
callers are comfortably seated, who finds a late maga¬ 
zine or the last edition of the newspaper for one 
who otherwise might grow impatient, helps to build a 
large and profitable clientele for her employer, and 
by her very manner is able to inspire in those who 
have dealings with her a high estimate of her 
employer’s ability. 

When a saleswoman manifests the same kindly con¬ 
sideration and intelligent interest in the needs of the 
small shopper that she does in the purchases of a 

51 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


wealthy customer, she renders a valuable service to 
those in whose employ she is. The small buyer often 
is timid. She is sensitive to the attitude of the sales¬ 
woman. If she is wearing last year’s hat and if her fur 
collar and cuffs are a bit worn, she feels keenly the 
contrast when the saleswoman, who has been giving 
flattering attention to a lavish customer, turns to her 
with indifference, asking rather bluntly, “ What is it 
you want ? ” 

Is it surprising if the small buyer turns away, deplor¬ 
ing the saleswoman’s want of good manners and saying 
to herself that, after all, money is the standard of 
value in that store, and hereafter she will spend her 
precious dollar in another institution which does not 
cater so flagrantly to wealth? 

Most men feel uncomfortable in a department store 
or a women’s ready-to-wear shop. They usually are 
self-conscious and they hesitate to ask to be shown 
goods. Here a woman’s tact may be brought into play 
with excellent results. When a man once finds a sales¬ 
woman in a department store or a specialty shop who 
serves him politely and satisfactorily, he usually is so 
grateful to her that he returns to buy, again and again. 

Gentleness of manner is invaluable in a doctor’s or 
dentist’s assistant. Not only will a thoughtful woman 
perform the usual services for her employer, but she 
may offer to call a taxi for a sick patient, or one who 
must make a train. It comes her way to do many little 

52 


MANNERS IN THE OFFICE 


kindnesses, and if she knows how to perform them 
gracefully, she is all the more valuable on that account. 
A doctor's or dentist’s patients often do not feel very 
cheerful, and they are more than grateful for small 
attentions, proffered in a kindly way. 

Telephone manners are of tremendous importance in 
every profession, business, and trade. 

When you stand face to face with friend or 
stranger, your smile, your handclasp, the inclination 
of your body—all of these stand you well in hand. 
If you happen to speak a little brusquely, the light in 
your eyes may counteract the effect of the tone of your 
voice. But when you establish communication over the 
telephone, you are wholly dependent upon the tone of 
your voice and your manner of speech to create a 
favorable impression. They are your introduction to a 
stranger, or they constitute your passport of favor to 
one who may know you well. Just the merest shade of 
rudeness or brusqueness is noticeable to the sensitive 
ear at the other end of the wire. 

Stores having special sales often select a woman of 
pleasant address and gracious manner to telephone to 
a selected list of customers, informing the latter of 
the opportunity to buy goods at a reduced price. For 
this work, good manners have a definite selling value, 
often securing orders where a less resourceful woman 
would fail. 

In large groceries, one or more women frequently are 

53 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


detailed to receive orders by telephone. Invariably 
they are chosen not so much for their knowledge of 
stocks and prices as for their pleasant voices and 
agreeable ways. This work requires patience, a good 
memory, and a durable amiability. 

The telephone is one of the most important tools of 
the woman reporter. She who is blessed with a good 
manner will be able to gather twice as much news 
by that method as she who is short of speech and who 
betrays an undue eagerness to finish the conversation. 
Vitality in the voice is another asset. It carries convic¬ 
tion. It inspires confidence. It disarms opposition 
and it overcomes fear. 

A secretary cannot be too punctilious in answering 
the telephone of her employer, in taking messages for 
him with polite precision, in asking if the person who 
has called desires to leave a number, and in expressing 
thanks to one who has furnished information. 

“ Would you like to leave a message for Mr. Blank, 
or do you wish him to call you ? ” is a correct 
way of answering one who has asked to talk with 
Mr. Blank. 

How many times in your own experience when you 
have lifted the telephone receiver, a voice has demanded 
of you, “ Who is this ? ” 

And does that question ever fail to irritate you? 
Does the offender suspect, you wonder, how harsh that 

54 


MANNERS IN THE OFFICE 

mode of salutation is? Does it not occur to her that 
she might exchange it with profit for a more gracious 
one? Such a manifestation of ignorance is hardly 
pardonable in a time when opportunities for self-culture 
are numerous and when they are so easily available to 
persons of every condition and class. 

When a woman takes employment with a man who 
has lacked the opportunity for self-cultivation, she 
should be all the more careful to maintain her personal 
standard of manners and conduct. Any boorishness 
manifested by her employer will not excuse an exhibi¬ 
tion of ill-mannerliness or temper on her part. 

Not infrequently, the diamond-in-the-rough type of 
man has a genuine pride in that woman in his employ 
who possesses fine manners. He likes to refer to 
“ our Miss Smith ” and her efficiency in the office. 
Her gracious dignity and gentility, he realizes, 
subconsciously if not consciously, give tone to 
his establishment. 

The public judges a firm by the manner and conduct 
of its employees. Every woman worker in contact with 
the public represents her firm, either for good or for ill. 
It should be a matter of personal pride to represent 
those who stand at the head of the business, not 
only faithfully and efficiently, but with a certain 
womanly grace. 

Current literature abounds in detailed information 

55 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


concerning conduct and good manners. Watching the 
woman of fine presence and finished manner to see how 
she does it, listening to the way she says it, is another 
practical means to self-improvement. 

While an alert woman may learn much that will be 
of service and value to her by the study of a good 
manual on manners, and by careful observation of the 
conduct and behavior of cultivated persons, the best 
manners always are a natural expression of kindliness 
of heart, generosity of spirit, respect for the rights of 
others, and a desire to contribute to their well-being 
and happiness. 

THE CHARM OF A GOOD SPEAKING VOICE 

Realizing that it is quite as important to charm the 
ear as to please the eye, a certain woman who is drawing 
a salary of $10,000 a year, early in her business career, 
took a course of lessons in the training and cultivation 
of her speaking voice. 

Comparatively few women, starting their careers 
on small wages or salaries, can afford to take voice les¬ 
sons like the $io,ooo-a-year executive who lives at 
home without expense. Novices in business consider 
themselves fortunate if, during their first few years, 
they are able to play successfully that ancient game of 
making ends meet. Nevertheless, any clever woman can 
be her own voice teacher. She need not employ an 

56 


THE CHARM OF A GOOD SPEAKING VOICE 


instructor at so many dollars an hour. By listening 
carefully to her own intonations, then comparing them 
with those of others, she can accomplish a great deal 
in the cultivation of a delightfully modulated tone. 
If she finds that it is too high to be pleasant and 
musical, she can practice pitching her voice lower. If 
it be too loud, she can soften it. There are few 
voices that are not amenable to cultivation, and many 
can be absolutely transformed. 

Strangely enough, many otherwise clever American 
women underestimate the value of a good speaking 
voice. They spend years in securing an academic edu¬ 
cation. They spend thousands of dollars upon their 
dress, their homes, their books, their jewels, assuming 
that their voices will take care of themselves. 

Did you ever attend an afternoon card party and lis¬ 
ten to the voices of the players the moment a hand 
has been played? To hear the din, you might imagine 
yourself to be in bedlam. Every woman seems to be 
vying with every other woman in her effort to speak a 
little louder. Here and there you hear a voice that is 
almost hysterical. 

Did you ever sit and listen to several voices in an 
adjoining room? And as you listened, did you not 
form mental pictures of the persons to whom the 
voices belonged? That man with the firm, positive, 
incisive tone, you are certain, would carry everything 

57 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


before him by force, rather than diplomacy. From the 
full, mellow, kindly voice of another, you feel that 
you would likely find in its possessor a generous friend. 
You can form, moreover, a fairly accurate estimate of 
the early environment and training of those who possess 
strident voices and those who speak in charmingly 
cultivated tones. 

When you go up to a counter to make a purchase, 
immediately you are prepossessed in favor of the 
young woman who is to serve you, in favor of the 
stocks of goods she may show you, and the house that 
employs her, when she addresses you in a musical, or 
even a well-modulated voice. Voice is one of the big 
factors in salesmanship. And salesmanship is a simple 
form of oratory. It must reach both the mind and 
the heart. 

One day I entered an office where a dozen young 
women are employed as clerks and stenographers. For 
the first time in my knowledge of that office, I heard a 
harsh, loud, uncultivated voice. I could only suspect 
that the young woman had been added to the office force 
in a time of emergency, as later information proved. 
She did not belong in that office, with that staff of low¬ 
voiced, well-mannered young women, despite her speed 
and efficiency at the typewriter. She was the one 
jarring note in the whole establishment. 

Many a young woman has lost her position without 

58 


PRESERVING THE ILLUSION OF YOUTH 


receiving an explanation from her employer. If he 
had been pressed for a reason, and if he had had the 
courage to give one, it would have been the girl’s voice. 
Its rasping quality had irritated him. And when he 
had been tired or harassed with worries, the girl’s voice 
had become intolerable. If he spoke sharply to her, the 
poor girl could not, of course, suspect the reason. 
Such incidents were dismissed by her with the assump¬ 
tion that her employer’s temper was anything but good. 

Shakespeare once said of one of his heroines: 

“ Her voice was ever soft, 

Gentle and low; an excellent thing in woman.” 

A well-modulated, gentle, musical voice has a tre¬ 
mendous power to charm in society. In business, it is 
a big asset. It sells goods. It secures orders. It 
attracts customers. It makes friends. 

No woman need rate herself well equipped for busi¬ 
ness until she has cultivated and secured for her daily 
using a vital voice of pleasant tone. 

PRESERVING THE ILLUSION OF YOUTH 

One of the most pathetic sights in this world is an 
elderly-looking woman, or one broken in middle age, 
who is hunting work from place to place and without 
success. Almost equally pathetic is the spectacle of a 
who is holding on to her job “by the skin of 

59 


woman 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


her teeth,” and who may be displaced by a younger 
woman any day. 

The difficulties which beset many older women seek¬ 
ing to secure or to hold places in industry never are 
underestimated. Naturally enough, no employer wants 
to engage a woman who has lost her freshness and her 
fire, who by her dress, manner, voice, and her every 
movement proclaims that she is on the verge of old age. 
Going from one house to another, she asks for work, 
and her plaint as she is turned away repeatedly is, 
“ There is no place in business for a woman with gray 
hairs.” She tells you further that every employer is 
looking for a pink-cheeked “ flapper,” and that the 
world is very cruel to all women who have passed their 
first youth. 

Always, it is difficult for an older woman to secure 
a hearing. No matter how skilled she may be, how 
energetic and enterprising, she will suffer keenly in 
comparison with the girl half her age. Business men 
believe, and with reason, that the younger woman is 
likely to be more active and aggressive, although this 
is not always true. A young woman is likely to be more 
optimistic, more biddable, and readier to perform extra 
labor when the need occurs. As a rule she is quicker, 
her blood is redder, and it runs in a warmer life-stream. 

A man will not hesitate to tax a younger woman heavily 

60 


PRESERVING THE ILLUSION OF YOUTH 


when he may have qualms about burdening an older 
woman in case of emergency. 

All these rules are set at nought, however, by certain 
women in business who have discovered the secrets of 
life and work. You have seen women in business and 
elsewhere, very often on the stage, who, although they 
were fifty, looked as if they might be thirty-five. You 
have actually seen middle-aged women who grew 
younger- instead of older-looking as they advanced 
in years. 

Such women have learned great lessons. They have 
found many of their deepest joys and satisfactions in 
the work of their minds and hands. They have learned 
not to worry, to take as cheerfully as possible every day 
as it comes. They are intensely interested in every¬ 
thing and everybody. They feel that it is a great privi¬ 
lege to be alive. 

In spite of encroaching years, they never abandon 
their standards of personal appearance and efficiency. 
They do not say when dressing for the office, “ This 
old frock is good enough—I will put it on.” Their 
hair is more carefully dressed than formerly, if possible. 
They are equally fastidious about all of their accesso¬ 
ries, and they are very particular about their hands. 

One of the outstandingly clever tricks of Sarah 
Bernhardt was the pose of her head. Early in life she 

learned that a high head gives an impression of vitality 

61 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


and vigor, the will to do, and the desire to press on. 
Where there is a tendency in the neck and throat 
muscles toward sagging, a head carried high is a more 
imperative necessity with the passing of years. In fact, 
the effect of a lowered chin after forty is fatal. It 
inclines, moreover, to a drooping of the whole form. 
To hold one’s chin high and to drop one’s shoulders 
at the same time is an impossibility. 

Vitality is a product of the mind as well as the body. 
Men and women can form a habit of being dull and 
lifeless, or they can form that altogether different habit 
of generating energy, mental and physical. Never con¬ 
tent to travel the old roads of knowledge and experience, 
they can constantly add something new to their personal 
equipment. They can read. They can study people and 
conditions. If they can find it, life holds a sort of 
magic, and that magic keeps them young. 

Lillian Russell left a priceless prescription for the 
preservation of youth, and Lillian Russell at the age 
of sixty-one did not look forty-five. 

“ The woman who wants to be young and beautiful,” 
she said, “ must not fret and worry. She must never 
allow herself more than a temporary anger, for anger 
distils poison in the blood and makes wrinkles and lines. 
She must think kindly of everybody, not only for the 
sake of other people, but for her own sake. 

“ Don’t hate,” said this incarnation of the youthful 

62 


PRESERVING THE ILLUSION OF YOUTH 

spirit. “ Don’t be envious. Never think of age, for 
years are nothing. Forget your birthdays, or if you 
must remember them, say to yourself, ‘ I am a year 
younger, not older.’ 

“ Love somebody or something, a baby, a husband, 
a flower or a tree. Laugh. Be interested in everything 
that goes on around you. Never worry about the inevi¬ 
table—just change your point of view about it.” 

I have seen women in business who almost made 
themselves ill by altogether unnecessary suspicions of 
their fellow-workers. They were always wondering 
what somebody else was saying about them. They suf¬ 
fered terribly from envy if a coworker received a 
“ raise.” They imagined slights from their employers 
when positively none were meant. They could not 
enjoy the fruits of their labors because they were so 
resentful against the larger earnings of those who had 
advanced higher, or of the financial success of the heads 
of the firm. 

No wonder the jealous, envious, sour-natured woman 
grows old and dreary. Selfishness, spitefulness, greed, 
and envy are destructive of youth and beauty while 
love, kindliness, good cheer, gratitude for blessings 
received, and happy anticipation of those to come are 
wine to the human spirit and a fountain of youth to the 
body itself. 

Is it surprising that so many women in this country, 

63 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


especially the busy women, look younger than 
their years? 

Why should it not be so? The spirit of youth is in 
the women of America. They are learning more every 
year about taking care of their bodies, and they are 
travelling by leaps and bounds in their assimilation of 
knowledge of the art of right thinking and living. 
They know that half the battle is in thinking as 
youth thinks. 

When a woman gets a clear vision of what she can 
do for herself and for her business by keeping a vital, 
youthful, human spirit, despite the inexorable passing 
of the years, she becomes not only more efficient as a 
worker and producer, but a veritable reservoir of sun¬ 
shine, a storage battery, recharging the flagging spirits 
of others, vivifying, transforming, re-creating wherever 
she goes. 

Here is a good rule to follow—if you will ignore the 
years, they will pay slight attention to you. 


CHAPTER III 


AVOIDING FAMILIARITIES 
NO PLACE FOR NIOBE IN TEARS 
THE BIGNESS OF LITTLE THINGS 






CHAPTER III 


AVOIDING FAMILIARITIES 

Familiarities are out of place in business, either 
between employer and employee, or between workers in 
stores and offices and their customers or clients. 

Regardless of the length of time a woman has been 
in the service of her employer, and regardless of how 
well she may know him, she makes a mistake when she 
calls him by his Christian name. The two may have 
played together in childhood. They may have been 
friends in school. Yet, however friendly may be their 
relation in business, however great the mutual confi¬ 
dence between them, in the presence of other persons, 
at least, she must address him as “ Mr. Smith.” One 
who permits others to hear her call her employer 
“ Tom ” does so at the risk of being considered ignorant 
or ill-mannered, and a stranger also may question the 
man’s sense of propriety. 

In few instances, indeed, may a woman worker 
address her male associates in business by their first 
names. If the saleswoman at the linen counter asks 
of the masculine head of the department, “ Jim, do you 
know if we have another table-cloth of this pattern 
in the stock-room?” a discriminating shopper, over- 

67 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


hearing that remark, may form an unfavorable opinion 
of the saleswoman who, by that small act of careless¬ 
ness, lowers the tone of the house. 

Or, let us suppose that the stenographer in a law 
office in the presence of a client turns to the lawyer’s 
clerk with the question: “ Has the brief in the case of 
Brown vs. Green been completed, Henry? ” 

One wishes that she might have addressed the clerk 
as Mr. Jones. 

Even more unfortunate is the habit some women 
form of calling their masculine associates in business 
by nicknames, particularly so, if they have coined those 
names. Hardly less crude is the omission of the prefix 
“ Mister,” and the habit of addressing men workers 
as “Jones” or “Smith.” 

One of the commonest errors among saleswomen in 
certain sections of the country is that of using terms of 
endearment in addressing their customers. “ Honey ” 
and “ Dear ” are too affectionate in tone for business, 
and the general effect of their use is one of provincial¬ 
ism. Location, of course, has some bearing upon this 
question. While the invariable rule in city shops is 
dignity, the saleswoman in a city shop approaching 
a customer to ask, “ Have you been waited upon, 
madam? ” or “ Have you received attention, sir? ”, less 
formality prevails in the shopping and business districts 
of many small cities and towns. People in small places 

68 


AVOIDING FAMILIARITIES 


often know everybody, and all classes are more or less 
on a basis of social equality. 

It is a mistake to assume that dignity and formality 
may not be combined with a cordiality and a willingness 
to serve that will disarm the most timid of shoppers 
who ventures into a city from a neighboring village or 
from a rural district. 

Familiarities between a woman worker and her 
employer are even less pardonable. The girl who 
accepts an invitation to luncheon or to dinner from her 
employer or from a department manager effects a com¬ 
promise with her dignity, which sooner or later she 
almost inevitably will regret. By that act she breaks 
down the safeguards of a business relation by intro¬ 
ducing a personal one. She is all too likely to forfeit 
the respect of her associates in business, and she gives 
others an opportunity to gossip about her and to say 
unpleasant things, excellent though her motives may be. 

A generous employer sometimes will invite a woman 
worker living in his section of the city to drive with 
him as far as her home. Occasionally, he may give 
her such a “ lift ” with propriety. But if he asks and 
if she accepts his invitation repeatedly, she need not be 
surprised if she becomes a subject of unpleasant obser¬ 
vation and remark, both among those making up the 
force in her office and those living in her neighborhood 
who may see her arrive. 


69 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


A woman must use great discretion in accepting per¬ 
sonal favors from an employer lest an unpleasant inter¬ 
pretation may be placed upon his generosity and her 
acceptance of it. If she must borrow money, let her 
seek it elsewhere. Let her be chary of accepting at his 
hands a longer vacation period than customarily is 
granted to one in her situation. The wise woman 
worker discourages firmly and tactfully a bestowal 
of favors, remembering that her arrangement with her 
employer and with department heads is a purely 
commercial one. 

One who is devoted to her employer, and who appre¬ 
ciates the kindly consideration shown her, sometimes 
takes a bouquet from her garden and arranges it in a 
bowl on his desk. Let her make it plain that she does 
so as a courtesy, that the gift is not suggestive of 
personal feeling or a romantic episode. 

When in the quiet and isolation of her employer’s 
private office, a stenographer takes dictation, she must 
not by word, glance, or manner offer the slightest 
encouragement for him to confide in her his personal 
affairs. It was a canny young woman who said: “ I 
prefer not to know what my employer does or what 
he thinks about after 5 : 30 o’clock, and I will not permit 
any one to tell me anything about his personal affairs. 

I am in his employ to concentrate my thoughts on his 

70 


NO PLACE FOR NIOBE IN TEARS 


business and not to let them wander into the realm 
of his private life.’ , 

Women in business who indulge in familiarities and 
who fail to discriminate between the personal attitude 
and the impersonal, the commercial and the social, invite 
unpleasant approach. 

A gentle dignity, on the other hand, serves two pur¬ 
poses; while it wins friends, clients, and customers, 
it rears a barrier against both words and acts of rude¬ 
ness, either thoughtless or otherwise. In business no 
woman can wear a more dependable or impenetrable 
armor and no woman who is making her own way can 
afford to overlook its possible usefulness to her. 

NO PLACE FOR NIOBE IN TEARS 

In love, tears often are a powerful weapon. In 
business, they are like a two-edged sword. 

In the presence of a woman’s tears a man feels abso¬ 
lutely helpless, particularly if the weeping woman is 
not one of his own family. He will do almost anything 
to quiet her, yield almost any point. Then, after the 
tearful episode is over, he is exasperated, perhaps filled 
with disgust. He has been unmanned, and he knows it. 
All he can do is to try to forget. 

When women in business expect equal wages for 
equal service, they are entirely out of order when they 
use tears as a weapon in fighting for personal advan- 

71 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


tage. However great may be a woman’s provocation, 
she has no justification for crying all over a man’s desk 
and weeping out her woes like a Niobe. Beauty’s tears 
may be lovelier than her smile in the eyes of the poet; 
but they elicit little else than exasperation when shed 
by a member of the “ blue serge brigade.” 

The woman who calls forth her tears in order to 
secure pardon for some fault or error she has com¬ 
mitted, or who opens the floodgates when she wants to 
get off early in order to go to the foot-ball game, to 
arouse sympathy for herself in order that her employer 
will pay her hospital bill and doctor’s fee, and who at 
the same time demands as much pay as a man and 
expects to have as good standing in the company, is 
guilty of gross inconsistency to say the least. As the 
old saying goes, she is “ playing both ends against 
the middle,” although probably she is the very last per¬ 
son to realize that. 

No one trait more sharply differentiates men from 
women than the impulse of the latter to enjoy their 
miseries. Only the weakest and most effeminate of men 
delights in being wretched, in soliciting the sympathy 
of his friends and acquaintances, in pitying himself. 
With women, however, the trait is not so uncommon, 
although happily enough it is becoming increasingly 
rare. In every business there are certain women who 

t 

cannot resist the temptation to tell everybody and any- 

72 


NO PLACE FOR NIOBE IN TEARS 


body how tired they are, how little sleep they had last 
night, how things are going wrong at home. They 
cannot lose sight of the personal element, whether it be 
with respect to their own troubles, or something that 
has transpired in the office. 

A man, writing to me on the subject of human bur¬ 
dens, says: 

“ Manly men are proud of their burdens, and they 
bow their backs to endure.” 

In these words is a salient suggestion for women. 
We all know how courageously women for centuries 
have borne their home burdens, how they have endured 
such hardship and suffering as men frankly say they 
could not support. 

Is there any reason why women should not be quite 
as proud to bear the burdens that come to them when 
they go into the business world, proud of their ability 
to carry them cheerfully and with a smile? Suppose 
a woman is called upon in an emergency to relinquish 
her Sunday of rest and recreation! Suppose she is sent 
out on a difficult mission, to travel at night and work 
during the day! Suppose she is confronted with a 
new issue, a hard and unfamiliar task! That is the 
time for her to show her mettle, not to let the tears 
come to her eyes and, with quivering lip, say, “ I can’t 
do that.” 

A woman who possessed remarkable writing and 

73 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


reporting talent and who always had done her work 
either by taking stories that were brought to her in the 
office or over the telephone, broke down one day when 
she was assigned to “ cover ” a ball story. Tears of 
fright and humiliation stood in her eyes as she thought 
of how she would have to go among fashionable people 
and in their very presence gather her facts for her 
report. Needless to say, there was no place in that big 
organization for a woman who crumpled up mentally 
and physically at the prospect of a new task. 

A novice in business is not likely to realize that when 
her employer unexpectedly hurls a cross remark at her, 
he is not necessarily displeased with her. He has had a 
sleepless night, or there may have been a family jar that 
morning. It may be that he has taken his wife to task 
for her extravagance, and with very unpleasant results. 
Or one of his children may have defied him, or he is 
facing a financial crisis in his business. He does not 
intend to display an irritable disposition before his 
employee, but, man-like, he takes it out on her in the 
absence of another on whom he may impose his spleen. 

While nothing is harder for a woman to bear than 
her employer’s gusts of ill-temper, let her, if she wishes 
to remain with him, remember that human nature is 
faulty and that all of us, at times, are wont to vent 

our ill-humor upon those for whom we have the deepest 

74 


NO PLACE FOR NIOBE IN TEARS 


regard. A very unhappy manifestation of the human 
spirit, but common enough, nevertheless. 

If at a cross word a woman loses control over herself 
and bursts into tears, her irritable employer is more 
likely to become still more irritable instead of being 
softened at the sight of her grief. If, on the other hand, 
she meets a petty injustice with dignity and composure, 
he will have all the more admiration and respect for her. 

Tears that spring to the eyes on slight provocation 
are a sign of physical and nervous exhaustion. They 
are a warning that a woman is overdrawing her 
account, physically. Without delay she should consult 
a physician and, if possible, she should arrange for a 
vacation or additional rest. Or, perhaps she has been 
staying too close to her task and needs a little relaxation. 
Let her arrange a few evenings with her liveliest friends 
or go to a cheerful play or two. 

All women in business, in order to achieve the great¬ 
est possible happiness and success in their work, must 
cultivate the “ sporting spirit,” as Lady Astor calls it. 

A woman’s heart may be breaking, but the market¬ 
place demands her smile. Clients and customers 
approach her for the purpose of transacting business, 
not to listen to her woes; how her head ached all night; 
how the frozen water-pipes burst that morning just as 
she was leaving home j how she had to iron a blouse 
before she could come to the office; how she had quar- 

75 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


relied with a member of her family. She should think 
twice before burdening even her coworkers with her 
troubles. All unknown to her, they may have far worse 
griefs than her own. 

The more a woman expects of business, the more 
business will expect of her. She may shed her tears, 
as being a woman she is bound to shed them sometimes, 
but let her do so in hiding or in privacy, for they have 
no proper place in the scheme of business affairs. 

THE BIGNESS OF LITTLE THINGS 

Men are led by trifles.— Napoleon. 

He that despiseth small things shall fall by little 
and little.— Ecclesiasticus. 

It is but the littleness in man that sees no greatness 
in trifles .—Wendell Phillips. 

Wise men and women in all periods of the world’s 
history have understood the bigness of little things. 
They have not underestimated the importance of details 
which to others might have seemed negligible. 

Napoleon, who if he were living today probably 
would be a captain of industry, was a master of trifles. 
He would give his personal attention to details so small 
that his generals hardly gave them notice. He knew 
all about the supplies for his army, the fodder for the 

horses, the cooking utensils used in camp, the shoes for 

76 


THE BIGNESS OF LITTLE THINGS 


his soldiers, the kind of food that was provided them. 
Continually he charged his officers to report to him 
the smallest things. 

“ When these reports are sent to me I give up every 
occupation to read them,” he once said. “ No young 
girl enjoys her novel as I do these reports.” 

Women in business might learn a lesson from the 
great Napoleon. The smallest details are important in 
business. Nothing is so trivial that, with impunity, it 
may be overlooked. 

Take, for instance, the use of names. The mis¬ 
spelling of a name is the most awkward of errors. In 
the eyes of exacting persons, it is almost unpardonable. 

Not only is it important to spell a name correctly, it 
should be written in an uniform style. If a business 
man often has occasion to dictate a letter to Mr. John 
B. Stone, his stenographer should always write the 
name in precisely that form at the beginning of the 
letter and also on the envelope. Never for the lack of 
time, or for the sake of abbreviation, should she write 
Mr. J. B. Stone. Judge Samuel T. Hopkins is not to 
be addressed on one occasion as “ Samuel, and as 
“ Sam ” on the next. 

In addressing her employer’s clients, customers, 01 
associates in person, a stenographer, clerk, or secretary 
should avoid careless mistakes. Mr. Ferguson does not 
want to be called Mr. Frederickson, or Mr. Key does 

77 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


not care to be addressed, by a faulty association of ideas, 
as Mr. Locke. Dickens’ memorable character of Mrs. 
Malaprop has her proper place in fiction. She is 
an absurdity in business life. 

The employed woman who has a faculty for remem¬ 
bering the names of all persons with whom she transacts 
business has a tremendous advantage over her co¬ 
laborer lacking that excellent gift. If the second time 
a customer approaches the lace counter in Blank and 
Company’s store, the saleswoman can say, “ Good 
morning, Mrs. Brown,” she has won a friend. After 
that Mrs. Brown is likely to remark to an acquaintance 
that she particularly likes to buy of Blank and Company, 
and to add that Miss Smith, at the lace counter, is such 
a clever young woman and remembers every customer! 

There is a right way and a wrong way to do even the 
smallest thing. An untrained woman will take fifty 
letters and seal each one separately. A trained woman 
will moisten the mucilage on all fifty with a few strokes, 
and her sealing of the letters has the appearance of a 
sleight-of-hand performance, so speedily is it done. 
She knows that there is a close relation between time 
and money, and that in business production is a thing 
that counts. 

Employer and employee have at least one thing in 
common—that is, time. Any woman who wastes her 
time wastes her employer’s money. She wastes it just 

78 


THE BIGNESS OF LITTLE THINGS 


as surely as if she dropped coins on the floor and 
failed to pick them up. 

Figuring aloud, singing, whistling, and laughing are 
sources of irritation to serious workers. If the latter 
are more considerate of the offender than she is of 
them, they may hesitate to suggest to her how annoying 
the disturbance is. Often they will endure in silence 
with the result that they are made to suffer unnecessary 
wear and tear. 

It is not enough actually to be business-like. It is 
advisable to look the part. Therefore, women workers 
should not take their sewing or embroidery to the 
office, even though they may have leisure time. The 
sight of a woman plying her needle in a business office 
is incongruous. For the same reason a cashier should 
not seize upon a bit of embroidery the moment she has 
made change. 

Receipts should always be obtained from messengers 
and collectors when turning over money or packages to 
them. These should be filed where they can be reached 
quickly. If, for want of ready cash in the office, an 
employed woman pays for some trifling thing out of her 
own purse, she should ask for a receipt and turn that 
over to the firm when she asks to be reimbursed. The 
woman who shows a desire to keep all money matters 
straight will win the respect of business men. 

If a worker suspects that her efforts may not be 

79 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


wholly satisfactory to her employer, she should not 
mention that matter to her colaborers. Rather should 
she take it directly to headquarters and ask about it 
frankly. Such a course will take courage, but the end 
will justify the means. 

A disgruntled worker may try to persuade an asso¬ 
ciate to become discontented with her situation and her 
salary. Ignore all unpleasant suggestions, such as, 
“You are doing a man’s work and you ought to be 
getting a man’s pay.” The question of salary is 
one to be discussed only between the employer and 
the employee. 

Every woman worker is entitled to the highest wage 
or salary that she can command. She must not forget, 
however, that in most places men are given the hardest 
tasks, that they have the longest hours, and that it is 
their part to bear the severest strain. Usually women 
have the better working quarters and conditions, and 
their physical comfort and welfare is more often con¬ 
sidered than is man’s. 

In every business there is likely to be an occasional 
storm. The winds of discord blow. The lightnings 
of excited tempers flash and there are thunderings of 
angry words. At such a time a woman worker should 
know and see as little as possible. She should go about 

quietly, say nothing, and avoid gossip. She should take 

80 


THE BIGNESS OF LITTLE THINGS 


pains to banish all thought of trouble from her mind 
and not to let it be reflected on her countenance. 

Petty quarrelling is inexcusable among women in 
business. It disrupts an office or a department some¬ 
times, and it tends to lessen a woman’s efficiency. One 
of the cardinal rules for a woman to observe in business 
is that of working agreeably with other women regard¬ 
less of her personal feeling toward them or of her 
estimate of their personal qualifications or their abilities. 

In business there is no place for spiteful feminine 
differences. Executives have too many problems to 
grapple with to permit the annoyance arising from 
women’s petulance. They are too much occupied with 
matters of importance to listen to the tales one woman 
may want to tell about another. A quarrelsome woman, 
however efficient she may be, is likely one day to find 
that she is minus a job. 

Nothing is more difficult for some daughters of Eve 
than .to attend strictly to their own business and not 
to meddle in others’ affairs. Most men feel that they 
have troubles enough of their own without taking on 
the griefs of others. But, from time immemorial, 
woman has borrowed the troubles of her neighbors 
and has felt it her duty to regulate their affairs. She is 
inclined to regard this effort as a virtue rather than the 
vice that it really is. 

Every firm has confidential business secrets that for 
6 81 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


reasons best known to the officers and stockholders are 
not to be published to the world outside. Young 
workers who learn these secrets not intended for distri¬ 
bution may not realize fully the importance of keeping 
them. Perhaps a firm is passing through a temporary 
financial crisis when one indiscreet word may cause 
endless trouble, even financial collapse. In any event, 
an unfavorable report is likely to impair a firm’s credit, 
and sometimes it is years before the damage can be 
fully repaired. 

A jealous wife may so forget her dignity as to ques¬ 
tion her husband’s employees. Through them she may 
seek to learn if her husband receives letters from other 
women, telephone calls, or visits to his office. 

Whatever happens in a man’s office, whether it be 
right or wrong, must be regarded as private business 
never under any circumstances to be revealed. An 
employed woman demonstrates her wisdom when she 
quietly disclaims all knowledge of her employer’s per¬ 
sonal affairs. 

She has nothing to do with her employer’s personal 
conduct or character so long as she is not involved in 
any wrong-doing and so long as he accords her a 
decent respect. If he does not do what is right accord¬ 
ing to her standards, she must forget about it and do 
right herself. If she should be called upon to partici¬ 
pate in any dishonorable transaction, she should seek 

82 


THE BIGNESS OF LITTLE THINGS 


employment elsewhere and let the matter be a 
closed book. 

It is very foolish for an employed woman to interpret 
as a personal offense a complaint made against her 
firm, its service, or its wares. The trouble, whatever it 
may be, should be adjusted politely and tactfully, and 
without offending the customer or reflecting in any way 
upon the integrity or standing of the firm. This course, 
needless to say, may require the exercise of diplomacy. 

Nearly every man has some eccentricities. One who 
is a reasonable employer in all other ways will “ fire ” 
a worker who telephones to his home to ask him about 
some detail of his business. His home hours, this man 
declares, are sacred to his wife and his children. He 
draws a sharp line between home life and business, and 
when he once leaves his office he wants to forget 
the market-place. 

Not a few men insist upon certain articles being kept 
in certain places on the desk. They expect their secre¬ 
taries or stenographers to see that the basket for incom¬ 
ing mail and that for outgoing mail are not moved out 
of place. Any one of a thousand trifling things may 
get on a man’s nerves. Let each employed woman try 
to discover her employer’s eccentricities, if he has any, 
and avoid giving him offense. 

Gravely mistaken is the woman who regards her 
employer’s office or store-room as a commissary. Yet, 

83 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


she may even boast that she never buys a postage- 
stamp. She furnishes all members of the family with 
letter-heads and envelopes from the office for their 
personal correspondence. She takes home pencils, 
erasers, clips, and the like. At holiday time, when 
she has to dig deep into her pocket to buy stamps for 
her Christmas cards, she relieves the strain somewhat 
by filching twenty or twenty-five stamps from the office 
store. In fact, she makes a practice of never spending 
from her own purse so long as she can draw on office 
supplies. She does not realize that this is one form of 
stealing, petty though her little thefts may be. 

Using the name of the firm in order to secure per¬ 
sonal favors is another error into which a woman 
worker may fall. If she has not comprehended fully 
the impropriety of doing so, she may use her business 
connection to secure extensions of credit under circum¬ 
stances hardly warrantable. If her employers were to 
discover that she was using the institution for the sake 
of obtaining personal benefits, they probably would 
be indignant. 

Religious discussion is to be avoided in business. 
Unless she is asked about her religious faith, an 
employed woman is the wiser when she does not mention 
in her business life her affiliation with any church or 
creed. Attempts at proselyting in an office are unpar¬ 
donable. No less reprehensible is the spreading of 

84 


THE BIGNESS OF LITTLE THINGS 


religious propaganda in an office, store, or factory. 
The woman who out of a mistaken sense of zeal for 
her church or her religion talks her religion in business, 
or who gossips about or reports on those not in relig¬ 
ious agreement with her, has failed to master one of the 
cardinal rules of business conduct and etiquette. 

Because this cardinal rule has been ignored too often, 
many employers insert in their advertisements for 
workers the phrase “ state your religious faith or church 
affiliation.” The result is that many an innocent and 
unoffending worker who regards her religion purely as 
a personal matter is made to suffer for the fault of her 
less discreet sister-workers who have had no better taste 
or judgment than to flaunt their religious convictions 
in their business life. 

Life is made up of little things for the most part, 
details of work and method, small courtesies, little kind¬ 
nesses, and pleasant smiles. Once in a while a worker 
is assigned a big task. But all of us have before us 
daily many smaller things to do. 

It is only after we have mastered the smaller things 
that the big opportunities are offered us. Not one of 
us in the world of business can afford to overlook the 
little things. 



CHAPTER IV 


SUCCESSFUL SALESMANSHIP 
PERSONALITY, THE GOLDEN KEY 
CHARACTER AND REPUTATION 



CHAPTER IV 


SUCCESSFUL SALESMANSHIP 

An increasing number of women in the United 
States are making a success of salesmanship. In 
department stores women have almost entirely replaced 
men, and in many specialty shops the only man in evi¬ 
dence is the floor manager. 

Women are achieving a substantial success in the 
sale of all kinds of insurance. Not a few are selling 
real estate and some of the bolder spirits have become 
commercial travellers. 

Why should not women make a success of salesman¬ 
ship? They possess naturally many of the most neces¬ 
sary qualities, such as patience, tact, and resourcefulness. 
Selling appeals to women, moreover, because it is one 
of the most fascinating games in business. A sales¬ 
woman comes in contact with all sorts and conditions of 
people, the class of her customers depending largely 
upon the kind of goods she has to sell. There is some¬ 
thing dramatic in selling that appeals to her with its 
element of contest, its chance of victory, and hazard of 
defeat. And in any event she will develop through 

experience, even though she has been the most 

89 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


timid and shrinking of women, alertness, poise, 
and self-confidence. 

Every would-be saleswoman learns in the beginning 
that there are four steps in making a sale. Those steps 
are to arouse interest, to create desire, to close the 
sale, and to insure satisfaction. 

Selling, therefore, is very much what a saleswoman 
makes it. She may take her place behind the counter 
and serve her customers so listlessly that they fairly 
have to sell themselves. Or she may display so much 
intelligence, and give her customers such a superior 
service, that they are eager to return to her. 

But however keen her personal ambition and her de¬ 
sire to give “ value received,” she will need training and 
preparation. The modern store usually holds night 
classes in salesmanship for its women employees with 
the advertising manager, the sales manager, or a 
specialist in the science of salesmanship conducting 
the classes. 

In such classes the women are taught that they must 
be thoroughly acquainted with their stock; that they 
must believe in what they are selling; that they must 
be able in a measure to anticipate the wishes and desires 
of the buyer, that by their candor, their courtesy, and 
their knowledge they may win the confidence of 
their customers. 

If a saleswoman is able to give sound advice to a cus- 

90 


SUCCESSFUL SALESMANSHIP 


tomer in the making of a purchase, the latter may be 
persuaded to buy a better quality of goods than she 
would choose otherwise. She must know also how to 
arouse interest in other lines of merchandise than that 
for which the customer has asked. 

Selling notions, ribbons, toilet articles, and laces does 
not require so high an order of ability as the sale of 
linens, silks, and dress goods. Millinery, dresses, and 
suits demand a still greater skill. The closing of a sale 
when a customer is in doubt about a hat, a gown, or 
furs is no easy accomplishment, particularly in view of 
the fact that it is to the advantage of the house and the 
individual saleswoman that every customer shall be 
permanently pleased. 

The majority of shoppers have their favorite sales¬ 
women from whom they make the bulk of their pur¬ 
chases. A shopper will go to Blank and Company for 
her millinery, not necessarily because that firm offers 
better prices or a greater variety, but because she finds 
it so satisfactory to select a hat with the assistance of 
that “ clever Miss Jones.” Through years of acquaint¬ 
ance Miss Jones has learned her customer’s needs, the 
colors she likes, the shapes that suit her, and approxi¬ 
mately the price she can pay. 

For similar reasons a shopper will patronize the 
ready-to-wear department in another store, where Miss 
Smith gives her sympathetic and intelligent service in 

91 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


the purchase of a dress. In a third house the shopper 
is a steady patron of Miss Brown at the toilet goods 
department, where she can make her selections with the 
minimum of effort and loss of time. 

Clever saleswomen frequently take their customers 
from store to store with them, an example of the power 
of personality in the realm of salesmanship. 

The woman who goes out to seek customers instead 
of waiting for them to come to her needs courage, 
initiative, and resourcefulness. 

The importance of studying a prospect before 
approaching him cannot be overemphasized. The sales- 
talk must fit the prospect, and to this end advance 
information often is invaluable. A man may be pleased 
if his prowess at golf is mentioned casually, or if 
reference is made to a recent achievement in the busi¬ 
ness or professional world. With some persons it is 
better to plunge into the main issue, while with others 
it is better to lead up. 

Busy persons often are hard to see. However, they 
expect salesmen and women to possess enough energy 
and determination to overcome all obstacles placed in 
the latter’s way. Even with the hardest prospect, a 
certain number of salespeople will secure interviews. 
So, why not be one of the successful ? Many a delayed 
interview has been secured by timely and courteous 
persistence. There are few persons so adamant that 

92 


SUCCESSFUL SALESMANSHIP 


they will refuse to see the same solicitors again and 
again. So, finally, they will make time for the sales¬ 
man, even though it be a busy day. 

In some instances, it is a good policy to telephone 
for an appointment. The saleswoman who selects this 
method should not waste words. Upon securing a 
telephone connection, she may say something like this: 

“ Mr. Smith—this is Miss Jones representing the 
Blank and Blank Company. I have a business matter 
I want to present to you. What time would be most 
convenient for you? May I call between n and 12?” 

Mr. Smith will have to say either “ Yes ” or “ No ” 
to her question, and in case he replies in the affirmative, 
Miss Jones may ask him whether 11 or 11:30 will be 
the more convenient hour. When he has specified the 
hour of the interview, she may say: 

“ Thank you, I will be there at that time.” 

Entering Mr. Smith’s outer office on the minute, 
she will say to the clerk or stenographer in 
the waiting-room: 

“ Will you please tell Mr. Smith that Miss Jones 
is here? ” 

But, let us suppose that Mr. Smith has replied that 
he has many engagements and he cannot see Miss Jones 
on that day. If she is in town for only a few hours, 
or a day or two, she may explain that to him and ask him 
if he will not indicate to her when he will receive her. 

93 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


If the prospect is a woman living at home, it is all 
the more necessary to ask for an appointment by tele¬ 
phone. A housekeeper may be occupied in her kitchen, 
or she may have a sick child. She is in a much better 
temper to receive a solicitor who has given her warning 
of approach. In the afternoon hours a home-keeping 
woman may have visitors, when the advent of a solicitor 
or saleswoman will prove embarrassing to both. 

A saleswoman should watch her prospect very care¬ 
fully and note immediately any sign of impatience or 
flagging interest. She defeats her own interests when 
she wearies a prospective customer or overstays 
her time. 

The attitude of a saleswoman never should be one of 
servility. She should approach an interview with dig¬ 
nity and confidence and the almost invariable result 
will be that she will command the respect of her pros¬ 
pect the moment she steps across the threshold of an 
office or a home. 

Appearance and manner are important factors in 
salesmanship. Before approaching a prospect a sales¬ 
woman should scrutinize her costume. Dust on her hat 
or on her shoes will not help her to effect a sale. Before 
entering a residence or an office she should take out her 
pocket mirror and look carefully at her head and face. 

Not one hair should be out of order, and it may be that 

94 


SUCCESSFUL SALESMANSHIP 


her complexion will require a little touching up before 
she is quite ready to present herself. 

Industry is as valuable in salesmanship as in any 
other line of work. There never was a successful sales¬ 
woman who lay in bed until noon. The most brilliant 
talent for salesmanship will avail little if the work is 
spasmodic; while only a fair amount of native ability, 
combined with patient and persistent effort, may yield 
gratifying results. 

Courage is another prime essential. Fear of a pros- 
pect is likely to rob a saleswoman of her poise and 
cause her to forget her sales-plan. That same fear also 
may cause her to dislike her prospect and to shrink 
from meeting him. Fear may make the hand clammy, 
the voice to quaver, and the whole figure to sag. 
Practically all beginners suffer from fear in some 
measure, but with the proper auto-suggestion, it may 
be overcome. 

It takes courage to enter a room with confidence 
after having been turned down repeatedly. It takes 
courage, when a woman is working on her own initiative 
and without supervision or direction, to start early in the 
morning and work late, to deny herself every temptation 
to dawdle over her breakfast in the morning, or to 
take in a good show in the afternoon. 

Women, as a sex, are credited with possessing more 

inherent tact than men. Tact, briefly, is the faculty for 

95 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


saying and doing the right thing at the right time. A 
tactful saleswoman will indulge her prospect in his or 
her pet opinions. She never will argue over a non- 
essential, or that which does not bear upon the sale. She 
tries to find out her prospect’s likes and dislikes, and to 
govern herself accordingly. She avoids all such perilous 
topics as politics or religion. She tries to say that which 
will make her prospect feel better and happier, and even 
if she does not make a sale at the first interview, she 
prepares the way for a friendly reception the next time 
she may call. 

Albert J. Beveridge, who was once a salesman, has 
said that “ being prepared is the secret of most successes 
in this world.” The woman who thoughtfully and 
painstakingly has prepared herself to approach a pros¬ 
pective customer by having the facts she wishes to pre¬ 
sent well in mind; who has foreseen possible objections 
her prospect may offer, and who has decided in advance 
by what arguments she may overcome them; and who 
at the time of her visit is physically fit and in a buoyant 
humor, has her sale at least half made. 

PERSONALITY, THE GOLDEN KEY 

What is personality? 

No one has been able to take its measure or to lay 
down definite rules for those who desire to cultivate it. 

One has called it “ the manifestation of character.” 

96 


PERSONALITY, THE GOLDEN KEY 

Another terms it “ personal atmosphere.” A third 
declares it to be “ the way a man acts out his life.” In 
any event, it is “ that something,” illusive and subtle, 
in men and women which every one feels immediately 
and which none can describe. 

Personality is known by the influence it exerts. 

The moment you find yourself in the presence of a 
real personality, you begin to breathe more freely and to 
feel more keenly alive. You have suddenly a delightful 
sense of security and well-being. All feeling of limi¬ 
tation drops from you like a cloak and for that moment, 
at least, you are certain that there is nothing in the 
world that you cannot do. You have new desires, new 
longings, new ambitions. Life seems to take on a 
bigger meaning and you say to yourself, “ This is a 
great old world and I am glad that I am living in it— 
I shall do something big one of these days.” Then, you 
go forth with a new aim and purpose, for you have 
caught a spark from that vivid spirit which gives you 
a new lease on life. 

Personality is the basis of every successful career. 
When I use the word “ successful,” I do not use it in 
its financial sense alone. A successful man must have 
more than money. He must be able to exert influence. 
He must have respect, and above all, friends. He must 
know how to inspire confidence and how to make the 

utmost of his talents and abilities. 

97 


7 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


Personality measured on the physical plane depends 
not so much on size and color and contour as it does on 
that intangible force we call vitality. Personal magnet¬ 
ism, a term often used synonymously with personality, 
is predicated on a reserve fund of vitality and strength. 
The “ all-tired-out ” woman is not magnetic. She may 
have enough vitality to keep her going, but she has no 
surplus to give out. This fund of vitality or personal 
magnetism may appear as physical exuberance. Or, 
repressed, it may give the effect of large vital forces 
in reserve. It acts like magic on an audience, and a 
certain few persons possessing outstanding personality 
and magnetism need only pass by in the street to make 
their presence felt. 

More difficult of analysis is the intellectual quality 
that enters into personality. Always, it presupposes 
a clear, vigorous, and alert mind. The more cultivated 
the mind, the wider its range of interest, reading, and 
general information, the more it has to contribute to 
the personality. 

Still more important is the contribution of the emo¬ 
tional nature. In developing a personality, the subject 
must ask over and over, “ Do I know how to feel, not 
monotonously and dully like so many others, but keenly 
and vitally, that I may radiate emotion, though always 
keeping it under control ? ” 

“ She has so much feeling,” you say of one of your 

98 


PERSONALITY, THE GOLDEN KEY 


friends. You mean that she has a wide range of sym¬ 
pathy, that she understands many types of human 
beings, and that she is able to express what she feels. 

Emotions are freed by broadening and enlarging 
one’s sympathies and by encouraging a response from 
others. A strong soul pours itself out, and it touches 
with its vital power every one with whom it comes 
in contact. 

Self-consciousness is an obstacle to the cultivation of 
personality. It walls off what personality there is, so 
that it cannot develop and expand. Even the kindliest 
and most generous of natures may not be able to break 
through the barriers that self-conscious persons rear. 
In fact, the world at large seldom has time or patience 
to penetrate such reserve. And why should it when life 
behind the barrier appears to be colorless and uninter¬ 
esting and the universe outside so full of any number 
of delightful things? 

Delsarte formulated an excellent motto when he 
said: “ Be strong at the center and you will be free at 
the circumference.” 

Men and women who are weak at the center through 
fear, timidity, indifference, or self-consciousness can¬ 
not, or do not, let themselves go in that delightfully 
spontaneous manner which is one secret of per¬ 
sonal charm. 

Another obstacle is affectation. The world is quick 

99 



TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


to detect insincerity, and it has a proper horror of 
shams. It likes a simple, straightforward manner, the 
cordial handclasp, the person who looks it right in the 
eye. It delights in men and women who are truly and 
beautifully themselves. 

If you are striving to evolve a personality, avoid fear 
as you would the plague. Why, indeed, should you 
be fearful of other persons? Are they not of the same 
flesh, blood, and spirit, God having made us all? Do 
we not, each one of us, live out our little span of life in 
this world, to come to our six feet of earth in the end? 

So, why be overawed and made nervous and perhaps 
miserable by a human being not unlike yourself—not 
even if he be rich and powerful and prominent? He is 
the son of a human mother, just as you and I are. 
None of us are the children of Olympian gods. 

Never allow yourself to think that while grace, 
beauty, charm, and poise are all very proper in the 
personality of a woman of leisure and fashion, they 
have less important parts to play in your life, spent, as 
it is, in the busy world of affairs. You need all the 
lovely graces. You need to know how to smile charm¬ 
ingly, how to speak beautifully, how to walk, and how to 
sit, how to rise and how to enter or to leave a room. 
But if you are not very careful, the business world will 
rob you of the more feminine phases of your personal¬ 
ity, and to your everlasting loss. 

100 


PERSONALITY, THE GOLDEN KEY 


You can learn these things if you want to. One of 
the characters in Charles Rann Kennedy’s play, The 
Servant in the House, says, “ Everything comes true 
if you wish it hard enough.” To wish devoutly for a 
personality such as will charm others is the very first 
step toward acquiring it. Many of those persons who 
so patently are lacking in personality have probably 
never formed a definite desire to develop one of the 
greatest assets they could have. Or, the desire, if they 
did conceive it, was not strong enough to impel them 
to action. 

It is exceedingly helpful to observe carefully those 
persons whose characteristics are generally admired, 
and to form associations with them whenever possible. 

Because of self-consciousness and timidity, a woman 
may seek persons of lesser accomplishments than her 
own, indulging what the psychologists call “an in¬ 
feriority complex.” It is easier, she finds, to mingle 
with somewhat inferior persons. They do not make 
such great demands upon her as superior ones do. 
She feels more comfortable in their presence, more “ at 
home,” as the saying goes. Succumbing to that 
temptation, she moves in a lower stratum of society 
in order that she may not feel at a disadvantage 
through comparison. 

No policy could be more disastrous for an ambitious 
woman. All of us profit by association with those 

101 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


who know more than we do, who are more graceful, 
more finished in manner, who have more poise, greater 
charm. Certainly we achieve nothing by fraternizing 
with those lower in the social, intellectual, and cultural 
scale than ourselves. Not only are we known by the 
company we keep—we actually grow to be more or 
less like the persons with whom we associate most 
constantly. 

The woman in business who is bent on developing 
an impressive personality must respect herself and her 
work if she expects the world to respect her. 

Never should she think of herself as a mere cog in 
the wheel of industry, or as only an atom in the great 
struggling mass of humanity. She must think of her¬ 
self always as a separate entity, of her present situation, 
if it be uncongenial and unsatisfactory to her, as a 
temporary one. She must regard her work as a 
stepping-stone to something higher, and she must hold 
in her mind always a clear vision of what she is 
going to become. 

Woman is like God in this—she creates in her own 
image. Whatever work she may undertake, it is the 
lengthened shadow of herself. All through her life, 
industrial and social, she will express herself, and for¬ 
tunate is the woman whose medium of expression is a 
compelling personality. 

For, personality more than any other one human 

102 


CHARACTER AND REPUTATION 


force has the power to purchase all good things. 
Wealth, position, honor, fame, friends, and a thousand 
precious opportunities flow toward the possessors of 
charming and attractive personalities, who through 
those personalities hold the keys opening every door 
in this life. 

So far as you are concerned, therefore, the richest 
mine in the world is within you. 

Why not begin to develop it this very day? 

CHARACTER AND REPUTATION 

Business is the testing-ground of character. 

One of the first questions an employer asks about the 
woman who applies for a position in his office, or with 
his firm, relates to her character and her habits of 
life and work. 

Is she scrupulously honest? Will she be conscien¬ 
tious in the performance of her task? Will she carry 
on with the same energy and industry when her super¬ 
visor is absent that she would if he were working in 
the same room? Will she be loyal and will she regard 
as confidential all information concerning her em¬ 
ployer’s business? Will she hold his secrets inviolable? 

“ When I employ men or women I regard character 
as a more important factor in their service to me than 
knowledge of my work, speed, or skill, declares a man 
who has been more than ordinarily successful in the 

103 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


selection of workers. “ I know that a woman of sound 
character is going to be loyal, and that if she makes 
occasional errors, she will do her work as well as she 
can. In a few months, or in a year, at most, I will be 
able to teach her such additional things as she needs to 
know. With intelligent coaching she will increase her 
speed and her output, and once she is trained I have the 
comforting assurance that I can depend upon her. 

“ If I know anything about business administration, 
it is this: character is the basis of all permanently 
competent and satisfactory service. I will take less 
skill and more character in a worker any day.” 

An employer knows that his business is going to be 
judged not only by the character of the officers of the 
corporation and the stockholders, but by that of the men 
and women in the firm’s employ. 

The president of a large corporation, in addressing 
several hundred men and women on his payroll, said: 
“ The public judges me and my organization by you. 
Each one of you is my personal representative, and each 
one is an official representative of the company.” 

Business demands that a woman worker, like Gesar’s 
wife, shall be above reproach. She is responsible to 
her employer and to his company for her personal 
conduct and behavior, outside of office hours as well as 
during them. Not only must she avoid all wrong¬ 
doing—she never must give the appearance of wrong. 

104 


CHARACTER AND REPUTATION 


Business is hardly less sensitive to unpleasant gossip 
about a woman than is her own family. 

It reflects to some extent upon the business with 
which she is connected if she refuses to pay a bill, the 
justice of which she cannot contest, and she should be 
extremely careful never to issue a check unless there 
is sufficient money in her account to take care of it. 
If she should become so neglectful of her obligations 
as to permit her wage to be garnisheed, she will place 
herself in peril of losing her situation. 

In the mercantile world, men and women like to buy 
wares of one who sells goods, not her principles. 

“ It is such a pleasure to buy of Miss Smith,” 
declares one of her regular customers. “ I always feel 
that I can depend upon everything she tells me. She 
never misrepresents goods in order to make a sale.” 

A modiste can make no greater mistake than to 
promise to complete a dress by a certain day when she 
knows that feat to be impossible. Women who work 
by appointment or contract should not take in more 
orders than they can fill and deliver on time. The 
character of a woman invariably is reflected in the 
character of the service she gives her customers, and 
the world is not slow in deciding who is, and who is 
not, dependable. 

A woman’s character is in her own keeping. Her 

105 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


reputation, however, is largely in the hands of others. 
Calumny gives no proof, and it asks none. Therefore, 
a woman in business must exercise the greatest dis¬ 
cretion, not only in matters of personal conduct, but in 
her choice of associates. 

While a woman of good heart always has the impulse 
and desire to be kind and courteous to all persons, 
whether they be of good or ill repute, she is careful to 
choose as her close associates and companions only 
those of unsullied reputation. Particularly, if she is 
living apart from her family, she must exercise dis¬ 
crimination; for in that situation, she is the more 
likely to be judged finally by the companionships 
she cultivates. 

Perhaps she has been invited repeatedly to join a 
group of young people, or a circle of married couples, 
who are kind and generous and pleasant, but who are 
neither fastidious nor discreet in the pleasures that 
they take. However lonely she may be, however infre¬ 
quent gala occasions may be for her, she cannot afford 
to join them on pain of being thought to have tastes or 
to hold social standards identical with their own. 

So impressionable is the nature of woman that her 
experiences and her thoughts ultimately are revealed 
in her face. Her loves and her hates, her struggles and 

her triumphs, her aspirations, her sense of integrity, or 

106 


CHARACTER AND REPUTATION 


her compromise with her principles—all of these are 
photographed on the sensitive negative of her soul. 

Elbert Hubbard once said of Jane Austen, “ She 
looked good because she was.” 

“ Does it pay to be good ? ” many a girl has asked 
in an hour of depression and temptation. 

It does. 

“ Character always is known,” said Emerson. 
“ Thefts never enrich; alms always impoverish; murder 
will speak out of stone walls. The least mixture of a 
lie, for example, a taint of vanity, any attempt to make 
a good impression or a favorable appearance, will vitiate 
the effect. But speak the truth and all nature and all 
spirits will help you with an unexpected furtherance.” 

No better advice, no truer thing ever was written for 
women in business. Many a woman worker in a crisis 
in her life has received this unexpected furtherance be¬ 
cause of the reputation for clean living and conscientious 
effort she had established over a period of years. For 
when the crisis came she found plenty of friends eager 
to help her; and she learned then, if she had not known 
before, that those who live right need not suffer for the 
satisfaction of real needs. 

The business world always is looking for women 
who can do more than demonstrate ability; women who 
are true to their heart’s core; women who are steady 
and dependable; women who are loyal; women who can 

107 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


say “ Yes ” at the right time, and who have the courage 
to say “ No.” 

Money, fame, and position are unquestioned sources 
of strength and protection so long as they last. Char¬ 
acter and reputation are sources of power yesterday, 
today, and forever. They play the dual roles of cause 
and effect. 


CHAPTER V 


ENDURANCE IS ESSENTIAL 
THE VALUE OF A HOBBY 
REST, RECREATION, AND VACATIONS 
FROM OFFICE TO DRAWING-ROOM 



CHAPTER V 


ENDURANCE IS ESSENTIAL 

Blessed is the woman who has ability. Twice blessed 
is she who has ability, plus reliability. Thrice blessed 
is she who has both, plus good health and endurance. 

No course is more detrimental to a woman in busi¬ 
ness than to work by fits and starts, to lose one day this 
week, a half-day next week, with the plea that she is 
not well enough to perform her duty, or that she is 
“ all tired out.” 

“ My one objection to employing women is their 
lack of physical endurance,” declared a business man 
who has hundreds of women on his payroll. “ We 
never know until we have called the roll in the morning 
how many women may be missing. It is a serious prob¬ 
lem in our business, and one which I do not know how 
to solve.” 

No employer can solve it. The solution is in the 
hands of the women themselves. 

If a woman expects to make a success of business, 
she must have health and endurance. Her employer 
must know that he can depend upon her to put forth 
a sustained effort year in and year out. The chronically 
tired and frequently ill woman may call herself any- 

111 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


thing but a business woman—the title is not right¬ 
fully hers. 

The all-tired-out woman cannot think clearly or con¬ 
structively. She is reluctant to take the initiative or 
to assume responsibility. There is an unevenness in 
her work that sorely tries the patience of her employer. 
Her mood too often is one of pessimism, for when the 
physical machine is not working properly, human hope 
wavers, the sense of justice is likely to become warped, 
and loyalty declines, even fails. The unhappy victim 
of poor health conditions is not only a miserable 
creature in herself, but she makes others around her 
restive. Her influence is depressing, and the bid that 
her tired eyes make for pity from her employer even¬ 
tually becomes exasperating, even to the kindest and 
most generous of men. 

Since ability to work is the business woman’s capital, 
every wage- or salary-earning woman necessarily must 
take an intelligent interest in her health. 

Some women never take a thought of their physical 
condition until they become ill. If suffering pain, they 
try to ignore it, or triumph over it by force of will. 
Other women, on the contrary, take a morbid interest 
in all their physical sensations, and are tortured with 
fear at the first attack of pain. Either course is unin¬ 
telligent. Even a slight illness suggests the wisdom of 
consulting a good physician, and the really wise and 

112 


ENDURANCE IS ESSENTIAL 

foreseeing woman submits herself for physical exami¬ 
nation every six months, or at least, once a year. 

Why do we eat? 

To generate energy, force, and power. 

More women in business are given to undereating 
than overeating. If you will watch the food selections 
of hundreds of women in restaurants and cafeterias 
frequented by business women, you will be surprised 
by the large number who lunch upon a small plate of 
salad or a piece of pie, together with a cup of tea 
or coffee. 

A woman may exist during the afternoon hours on 
so slender a diet, but she is not likely to generate suffi¬ 
cient vitality to have what is commonly called “ driving 
force.” If she has a heavy afternoon’s task, she will 
begin to feel very tired by three o’clock. She will have 
that “ gone ” sensation in her stomach, and she will 
fairly count the minutes until closing time. 

If that same woman had eaten two well-cooked vege¬ 
tables, potatoes, beans, peas, hominy, carrots, or cab¬ 
bage, with a slice of whole-wheat bread, perhaps a bit 
of salad and a sweet, she would find herself well 
fortified for the afternoon’s work. 

Shall an employed woman eat two or five meals 
a day? 

If she varies from the usual three meals, she should 
consult her physician, and she should experiment until 
8 113 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


she can learn just how often she should eat, and how 
much, in order to lead the most efficient life. 

During work periods of unusual length or strain, it 
is sometimes helpful to take a glass of milk or chocolate 
in the middle of the morning and the middle of the 
afternoon, in addition to one’s regular meals. A glass 
of hot milk, sipped at bedtime, is nourishing, and 
soothes tired nerves. 

Women in business often become so absorbed in 
their work that they neglect to drink enough water for 
the maintenance of good health. One who drinks plenty 
of pure water is less likely to suffer physical disturb¬ 
ance. She will retain her youth longer and have a 
clearer complexion and brighter eyes. 

The woman who boasts that she can commit excesses 
with impunity, that she can overeat, that she can dissi¬ 
pate at night, and be up bright and early in the morning, 
ready for the day’s work, will come to grief in the long 
run. Sound, restful sleep is necessary to the worker. 
Persons differ in the amount of sleep they need. Seven 
hours will suffice one person as well as nine hours will 
another. Fresh air in abundance while sleeping rebuilds 
energy and vitality, and sleeping on an open porch, 
unless the weather is severe, is the ideal condition. 

To keep warm while in bed is another important item. 
To try to sleep while feeling chilly means to suffer 
a loss of vitality and to fail to rebuild as one should. 

114 


ENDURANCE IS ESSENTIAL 


From time to time, almost any women in business 
will suffer a period of painful fatigue. Going to bed 
for a few nights at seven or eight o’clock, not necessa¬ 
rily to sleep, but to rest and read a cheerful book, often 
will repair the damage. Business women more than 
others, perhaps, need to cultivate the habit of sleeping 
independently of circumstance. 

Sleep, says an authority on the subject, is not as 
important as people think it is. Rest is the great 
essential. And if one will rest quietly without worry 
or fear, a few hours of unconsciousness will not be 
missed. It is the person who tosses and turns and frets 
through a sleepless night who gets up in the morning 
too exhausted to begin the day’s work. 

The best condition for sleep is to shut out all sensory 
stimuli, and this usually is best accomplished by closing 
the eyes. Or, if it seems better to keep them open, fix 
them on a star outside the window, or on a tree, not 
intently, but quietly and restfully, and after a while the 

eyes will close of themselves. 

“ I tossed the whole night through,” many a woman 
has reported to her family in the morning. No wonder 
she did not sleep. One must lie perfectly quiet when 
the wooing of sleep is difficult; and one must resist 
the impulse to move. From lying quiet, the body after 
while will become quiet of itself and relax. 

The greatest difficulty sleepless persons have is the 

115 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


control of their thoughts. They go over the happenings 
of the day, or rehearse the actions and words of the 
morrow. To clear the mind of all thought as nearly 
as possible, “ to think nothing,” is a condition favorable 
to sleep. 

It is said that Napoleon always slept at will. Pos¬ 
sibly he employed a system similar to that recommended 
by modern psychopathologists in the treatment of their 
patients, suffering from insomnia. 

Endurance is a faculty that may be cultivated. Many 
a delicate girl whose family always indulged her and 
saved her energies, has gone into industry and has 
worked steadily eight or nine hours a day without 
detriment to her health, and to the amazement of all 
her relatives and friends. She was wise enough to 
cultivate endurance in order that she might survive. 

THE VALUE OF A HOBBY 

In a large northwestern city the superintendent of 
schools invariably asks the teacher who applies to him 
for a position if she has a hobby. It is his firm convic¬ 
tion, based on years of experience in the teaching pro¬ 
fession, that a woman instructor in order to attain the 
highest efficiency should have some definite interest 
outside of her daily task. This outside interest, he 
holds, gives her a wider sympathy with people and a 
broader conception of her own work. It lends variety 

116 


THE VALUE OF A HOBBY 


to her existence, and it tends in some others to ward 
off what has been called “ the age of despair.” 

Women who follow one of the arts or the profes¬ 
sions seldom feel this need in their lives. Music, paint¬ 
ing, sculpture, etching, law, medicine, or writing—the 
pursuit of any one of these is sufficient to fill a woman’s 
life. She has contacts with many persons, usually, 
and she discovers many avenues of expression, more of 
them, commonly, than she has either the time or the 
strength to pursue. 

But, with the teacher, the saleswoman, the book¬ 
keeper, the clerk, or the stenographer, this is not always 
so. Her efforts, too often, involve constant repetition, 
and the keeping of a schedule of relentless routine. 
Then it is that a hobby demonstrates its value. It helps 
to establish a balance in her life and to keep it true. 

How a hobby may become the means of enriching 
the life of a lonely woman was demonstrated in the 
case of an accountant, a quiet little body who had 
lived in her town for five years, making but a few 
acquaintances, and whose life had fallen into a groove 
of monotonous routine. By chance, she came across 
a manual on hand-reading. For want of other diver¬ 
sion she studied it assiduously. Report of her interest 
in the subject reached the ears of a woman in charge 
of a charity bazar. She was asked to disguise herself 
gypsy and to read palms two evenings in one 

117 


as a 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


week. Her fame spread, and she was asked to officiate 
in a similar capacity at parties and church fairs. In no 
time she had widened her circle of acquaintance. She 
made friends gradually, and she had no end of interest¬ 
ing experiences. 

A saleswoman in a department store has china paint¬ 
ing for her hobby. Once every week or two she takes 
a lesson from a good teacher in the evening. Occasional 
sales of work pay for her lessons and materials. She 
has introduced something in her life beside the routine 
of her business career. 

If a woman in business who was devoted to music 
before she entered upon a wage-earning career allows 
herself to drift away from it, she loses something 
valuable from her life. Church choirs in thousands of 
towns and cities are recruited largely from the ranks 
of employed men and women whose lives are the richer 
for the service they render, and who have many 
happy associations formed through attendance at 
the church services and at choir practice. Choral 
clubs offer further opportunities for those who enjoy 
group singing. 

For a woman working in a man’s world, it is a 
wholesome thing for her to get in touch with woman’s 
world during her leisure hours. Groups of employed 
women who like needlework can spend many a happy 
evening together, exchanging ideas, discussing the cost 

118 


THE VALUE OF A HOBBY 

of materials, and planning new accomplishments in 
that line. 

Golf is rapidly becoming the hobby of employed 
women, who play on half-holidays and after working- 
hours on the public links if they do not buy member¬ 
ships in clubs. An efficiency expert made the assertion 
that every worker who plays golf regularly should be 
worth $500 a year more to his employer. 

Why should not this rule apply to women of the 
business world? 

The dangers of the dangerous age are less for the 
woman with a hobby, for one who keeps up a course of 
reading, or who continues to cultivate even a small 
accomplishment. It may be that in certain crises in 
her life an outside interest that is absorbing will ward 
off a severe temptation to turn from the path of honor. 
Certainly, it may spare her many hours of loneliness 
or boredom, while it makes her the more companionable 
and the broader in her point of view. 

It matters little what this hobby is so long as it is 
compatible with her hours of work and so long as it 
does not require too great an outlay of energy. It may 
be the planting of a rose garden. It may be learning 
a new language. Yet, it is good if it serves to keep 
alive enthusiasm in her and to add variety and zest 

to her life. 


119 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


REST, RECREATION, AND VACATIONS 

Did you ever look upon rest in the light of an 
active achievement? 

One wise in the ways of this life, Dr. Henry Churchill 
King, president of Oberlin University, so regards it. 
Failure to take enough rest to keep the mind and body 
in health, he considers a real sin of omission. 

One of the best manifestations of progress in 
American industry is its attitude within the last decade 
or two toward the vacation custom. Whereas formerly 
most employers regarded vacations for their workers 
as gratuities, they have realized in later years that an 
annual period of rest and recreation represents a gain 
in productivity and efficiency, rather than a loss. With 
the acquisition of this more scientific idea of manage¬ 
ment, they have accepted the vacation as part of a 
rational plan of life and work. Just as they have 
demonstrated to their complete satisfaction that more 
and better work is accomplished in eight or nine hours 
than in ten or twelve, so they have seen that vacations 
make for stronger and healthier bodies and happier 
and more contented minds. 

Every woman in business should remember that rest 
is more than a matter of physical hygiene—it is one of 
morals and temper as well. The power to resist temp¬ 
tation is much greater when we are in excellent health, 

120 


REST, RECREATION, AND VACATIONS 

and weaker when we are living in a state of anaemia 
or fatigue. Self-control involves the higher brain cen¬ 
ters, which are first affected by fatigue. Control 
becomes increasingly difficult as those centers are more 
and more overtaxed. 

Physical exhaustion and brain-fag, also, are followed 
by a lessened ability to bear responsibility, an uncer¬ 
tainty of will and the power to inhibit. Many a girl 
has first yielded to evil suggestions when she was 
physically and nervously exhausted. If we could trace 
to their origin all phases of human dereliction, we would 
find a good deal of undernourishment and overstrain, 
verging on the point of collapse. 

“ Oh, I feel perfectly well, and I do not need 

a vacation.” 

How many women absorbed in their business, how 
many wage-earning girls, have made that assertion 
during the season of vacation, only to discover three 
or six months later that they had made a grievous 
mistake! It is poor business, neglecting or refusing 
to take a rest at some time during the year. ' If a woman 
feels no need of rest, physically, she may wake up one 
morning to discover that she has gone to seed mentally. 

Power of selection enters into the planning of a vaca¬ 
tion as in everything else in this life. 

What is one woman’s meat is another woman’s 
poison. The important thing is to select the kind of 

121 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


a vacation that will make one happy for the time being, 
it matters little what one does. There is no greater 
folly than to try to persuade a woman who is dependent 
upon creature comforts, porcelain baths, immaculate 
bed-coverings, and daintily served food, that she ought 
to go to the country or go on a camping trip. Not all 
persons are adapted to “ roughing it.” If they force 
themselves into such a situation, they may do them¬ 
selves a positive injury. What they need on a vacation 
is the maximum of physical comfort and cleanliness for 
the soothing of their fastidious souls. They find real 
joy in a well-furnished hotel room, in what we call 
“ service,” and they want to dip their fingers in finger- 
bowls, not to eat from tin plates. 

Others, on the contrary, long to escape civilization. 
Many a woman delights in putting on a suit of khaki 
and a heavy pair of walking boots. A great peace 
descends upon her as she lies down on a hard cot and 
looks out through the rolled-back tent-flap at the starry 
sky overhead. She likes to hike over plain or mountain, 
to help gather the wood for the camp-fire. From nature 
she gathers a new sanity, and in the wood or on the 
mountain-side, she brushes the cobwebs from her soul. 
When she goes back to her work, refreshed by a 
complete change of habit and environment, she takes up 
her task with renewed zest. 

Those whose chief desire is to see something new and 

122 


REST, RECREATION, AND VACATIONS 

different, who have an appetite for strange scenes and 
faces, new experience, fresh impressions, who delight 
in studying unfamiliar types of men and women, who 
feel that life is painfully short for all the variety of 
thought and living they long to compress into it, are 
prone to wonder why some of their friends in vacation 
season visit the same old haunts, year after year, meet 
the same persons, renew old acquaintances, look at the 
same rocks, trees, and flowers. But this quiet and 
familiar way of taking a vacation is the best possible 
thing for some women. They would make themselves 
miserable in trying to adjust themselves to strange sur¬ 
roundings. Their heads would reel with the effort 
of assimilating new impressions. Their nerves would 
become jumpy, and they would return home more tired 
than when they left. 

Yet, even for the most enthusiastic seeker after new 
ideas and impressions, the most adaptable of pet sons, 
it is well sometimes to take a vacation of isolation and 
repose, and instead of journeying about and sight¬ 
seeing, visiting and theater-attending, to quit all forms 
of activity except breathing and eating, when the mind 
and the emotions are held in abeyance for days or weeks, 

as the case may be. 

Every employed woman should have the privilege, if 
she wishes to exercise it, of taking her vacation alone, 

unless she is a very young girl, and must be chaperoned. 

123 


I 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


However devoted she may be to the members of her 
family, it may be that she will achieve the maximum 
of rest and relaxation only by isolation, by rising 
and retiring just as the spirit moves her and 
taking her meals with no thought of the comfort or con¬ 
venience of another. Such an experience is particu¬ 
larly satisfactory to a woman who, for fifty weeks in 
the year, has lived by the clock, and who has family 
obligations to discharge. For though one woman can¬ 
not be happy going away from home quite alone, 
another rejoices in the personal freedom of an inde¬ 
pendent holiday, and she returns after a fortnight all 
the fonder, all the more appreciative, of those whom she 
left behind. 

Mood is everything in a vacation. If one cannot take 
it with a cheerful and happy spirit, it is better to remain 
at home. Nothing is more unfortunate than for a 
woman who feels that she cannot afford to go away 
for her vacation to travel and run up a hotel bill, con¬ 
stantly worrying over the money she is spending. She 
would much better rest in bed at home, read a few 
good books, go to the theater oftener, visit her friends, 
and find as much pleasure as she can in her accus¬ 
tomed surroundings. 

This matter of “ affording ” may be mental as well 
as material. If only those who truly felt that they 
could well afford to spend the money, went away from 

124 • 


FROM OFFICE TO DRAWING-ROOM 


home for their vacations, the hotels, steamship lines, 

“ rubberneck wagons,” and taxis soon would have to 
go out of business. Conservative women, sometimes, 
find it expedient to borrow several hundred dollars for 
a vacation, knowing that with increased efficiency they 
will earn more and pay back the loan. Americans spend 
their money; they enjoy with intensity, and they return 
to the business of life with renewed zest. 

Women doing certain kinds of work involving a 
severe mental strain find it a better plan to divide their 
vacation time into two periods which they take twice in 
the year. Every woman, according to her needs and 
opportunities, must work out her own vacation prob¬ 
lem. What she makes of it will have a good deal to 
do with her ability to resist fatigue and illness and to 
extend the span of her working years. 

FROM OFFICE TO DRAWING-ROOM 

That day when women in business will be judged 
solely on the basis of personal value, and when they 
will be accepted as readily in society as men, other 
things being equal, is fast approaching in America. 

Money is not essential to social position. Neither is 
lavish entertaining the price of personal popularity. 
In every town and city there are single and self- 
supporting women who are asked everywhere because 
they possess every desirable attribute except money. 

125 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


Having limited quarters, they can give only a little sup¬ 
per or have a few tables of bridge. Yet, they return 
every bit of hospitality that is offered them because they 
have the faculty of making a party go. They talk well, 
they dance, they play a good game of bridge and a 
creditable game of golf. They are cheerful and amus¬ 
ing, and they are welcome wherever they are 
well known. 

Let us suppose that a clever and successful business 
or professional woman opens an office or takes a posi¬ 
tion in a strange town. She brings with her no let¬ 
ters of introduction to important persons. She has 
no social entree and she has her own way to make. 
Her income enables her to have a few good dresses and 
to entertain occasionally in a modest manner in her 
small apartment, or to have a few guests at a cafe 
or hotel. 

This young woman must be prepared in her own 
mind to make haste slowly, for a desirable position 
among congenial persons is not easily or quickly won. 
The first thing for her to do is to join the church of 
her denomination, and to take part in its activities. 
Most churches have supper-clubs with semi-religious or 
educational programs following an evening repast. A 
new member will make some friends in one of these 
pleasant groups, who will invite her to their own homes. 
From one home, she is likely to be asked to another, 

126 


FROM OFFICE TO DRAWING-ROOM 


and after a few months or a year she may find herself 
with an agreeable, if small, circle of friends. 

All cities and towns of fair size have one or more 
clubs for business and professional women. Let the 
newcomer inform herself regarding the clubs in the city 
of her adoption. If with tact and a proper restraint 
she mentions one of these clubs to other women of her 
acquaintance, expressing an interest in it, she may be 
asked to join. 

Such clubs usually give one or two large entertain¬ 
ments every year. Often each woman member is per¬ 
mitted to invite to the annual or semi-annual frolic a 
man of her acquaintance. Or, it may be the custom 
of the club to have as its guests members of a men’s 
club of similar character, as, for instance, when a 
women’s advertising club gives a dinner to the men’s 
advertising club of the town. After an interval, the 
courtesy usually is returned by the men’s club. In this 
way, a strange woman has an excellent opportunity to 
form acquaintance with men of her own class whose 

interests are similar to hers. 

The problem of entertaining male callers is a difficult 
one to a young business woman who is not living in 
her own home. She may be able to rent a room 
in a private family, and on one or two evenings of 
the week enjoy the privilege of using the living- 
room or drawing-room. 


127 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


When three or four business women take a small 
house and live together on a cooperative plan, they may 
entertain their friends in a simple way with facility and 
ease. They may give a merry little dinner, each of 
the occupants doing her share of the work. Or they 
may serve tea on Sunday afternoon in an informal 
fashion, asking a half-dozen or perhaps twenty friends. 
A few tables of bridge in the evening, with a simple 
supper, is quite within bounds. 

Studio clubs in large cities offer excellent opportuni¬ 
ties for students and professional women. Usually 
they have large and beautifully furnished parlors where 
the members can receive their friends. 

In large cities, too, where the distances are great 
and it is impossible to make a trip from the office to the 
residence for a change of costume, returning in time for 
the dinner-hour, business women’s clubs are so equipped 
that the members may take a brief rest, readjust a 
simple toilet, or make a complete change. A member of 
one of these clubs may keep an informal dinner-dress, 
a hat, and cloak in her locker. On very short notice she 
is able to make herself presentable for dinner, for a 
concert, or a play. In cities that offer no such facilities, 
a fresh pair of gloves and a crisp veil, kept in a remote 
corner of the desk, will dress up a plain costume. 

The business or professional woman of limited in¬ 
come who dines out or attends formal functions can 

128 


FROM OFFICE TO DRAWING-ROOM 


do no better than to choose either black or cream-color, 
if she has but one formal dress. For utility and smart¬ 
ness nothing can compare with black. A simple dress 
of black net or Chantilly will wear indefinitely. A 
brilliant corsage changes the effect of it, and such a 
dress is sometimes fashioned to wear over different 
colored satin slips. 

It is good for a woman’s soul to exchange her plain 
business costume for attire that is pretty and distinctly 
feminine as the darkness falls. With that change of 
costume she effects a change of personality. The 
worker in the market-place is lost in that softer and 
gentler and gayer being who adorns a dinner-table 
and a drawing-room alike. Needless to say, when she 
lays aside her business uniform, she also forgets the 
workaday world. She never talks shop in her lighter 
moments. She speaks the language of the social world. 

Knowing as she does that in society the passports to 
its favor are a happy expression of countenance, a will¬ 
ingness to join enthusiastically into its amusements, an 
unaffected manner, and a sympathetic attitude of mind, 
a business and professional woman assumes that no 
fictitious barrier separates her in any sense from those 
who are more fortunately placed in a material way. 
She also assumes, and this is true of all cultivated per¬ 
sons, that those she encounters in her social life will 
9 129 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


feel as kindly toward her, as much interested in her, 
as she is cordially interested in them. 

In the case of a young girl who is away from home, 
who has no influential friends in the city where she is 
working, and who is struggling to make ends meet on 
a small weekly wage, social life is a matter not quite 
so easily arranged. Her church, of course, always is 
available to her. The Young Women’s Christian Asso¬ 
ciation provides pleasant and stimulating club activities 
for employed women of all tastes and classes, those in 
factories and laundries, as well as those in offices and 
stores. In every city and town there are one or more 
dancing clubs, the membership largely among employed 
girls, with a few congenial married folk to act 
as chaperons. 

Women in business and professional life who by 
sheer charm and ability win enviable positions in society 
deserve the admiration and support of all their sisters 
in the industrial world. They are pioneers, blazing new 
trails for the millions of clever and ambitious women 
crowding the market-place. They are demonstrating 
daily the interesting fact that a woman of parts is 
entitled to social preferment in the same measure as a 
man of similar accomplishments and breeding. 

Through the courage, the energy, and the resource¬ 
fulness of these women, the way will be made the easier 
for those who will follow in their train. In the near, 

130 


FROM OFFICE TO DRAWING-ROOM 

rather than the dim, distant future, a woman who goes 
out into the world to earn a livelihood will be received 
on the same basis as a man. If she is a member of a 
good family; if she succeeds in her work; if she is clever 
and charming and attractive, and contributes her share 
to the happiness of that circle in which she moves, her 
pay envelope will rear no barrier against her social 
progress as all too frequently has been the case in 
the past. 


% 





CHAPTER VI 


THE VALUE OF A BANK-ACCOUNT 
KEEPING A BUDGET OF EXPENSE 
PREPARING FOR THE RAINY DAY 
WHAT ARE SAFE INVESTMENTS? 



CHAPTER VI 


THE VALUE OF A BANK-ACCOUNT 

After achieving a pay envelope, the next step is a 
bank-account. 

If a woman’s wages are sufficient to cover only her 
daily and weekly expenses, she will not be able to make 
the standing deposit of $100 or $200 which all city 
banks require. Also, she must keep her deposit up to 
that minimum or the bank may charge her $1 a month 
for keeping her account. Small accounts which are 
drawn upon frequently are an expense to the bank 
rather than an asset to it. This standing deposit is not 
often required, however, in small city and town banks. 
Yet, if possible, a woman should keep a balance at all 
times over and above the amount she is likely to check 
out. A balance gives her a better standing with 
the bank, and she will be regarded a more desir¬ 
able depositor. 

A bank-account gives a business woman a financial 
standing which her working sister who has no banking 
connection cannot possibly have. There is, moreover, 
a credit advantage in it, since payment by check is pre¬ 
ferred by a firm that carries weekly or monthly accounts. 
When the check goes through the bank and, cancelled, 

135 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


is returned to the depositor with her monthly state¬ 
ment, it serves as a receipt. Checks are easily filed and 
may be used for reference in the building of a budget, 
or when making out an income tax return. Whenever 
money is sent by mail, the check is the safest and 
easiest way. 

No woman whose time means money can afford to 
go from place to place paying her bills the first of the 
month. She effects a big saving in time and labor by 
writing checks, attaching them to her bills, and sending 
them by post. 

To open an account, a prospective depositor calls on 
a bank, where she presents a letter of introduction or 
is accompanied by one who is known in the bank. She 
must be supplied with sufficient cash or checks to meet 
the bank’s requirements in the matter of the standing 
deposit. She is asked to write her signature on a card 
for the bank’s record, so that her signature on checks 
may be compared with it from time to time. The bank 
then supplies her with deposit slips, a check-book, and 
a pass-book, in which the sum of her initial deposit is 
recorded. This book usually is very small and may be 
carried conveniently in her wrist-bag. Her check-book, 
likewise, is usually small and compact in design and 
may be kept in a flat, folding case. 

Checks as they are drawn should be numbered con¬ 
secutively. To number a dozen or more ahead is an 

136 


THE VALUE OF A BANK-ACCOUNT 


excellent method. When writing a check in a hurry the 
number may be overlooked. Stubs must be numbered 
to correspond with the checks. Care should be taken to 
write legibly the date, the amount of the check, the 
name of the payee, and the signature. 

No well-informed woman uses the prefixes Miss or 
Mrs. when signing a check. She is Mary B. Smith, 
not Miss Mary B. Smith or Mrs. Mary B. Smith. 
Neither does she sign her name like a man, that is, 
M. B. Smith. The use of a middle initial is desirable, 
as there may be another Mary Smith on the bank s 
books. There should be no variation in the spelling of 
her Christian name, which should not deviate from 
simple Mary to Marie, or the nicknames Mamie 

or Mayme. 

The amount of the check should be written in such 
a manner as to make it almost impossible to change. 
In order to prevent alteration, the writer should set 
down the amount at the extreme left of the check. 
Whatever space may be left after writing the amount 

should be filled in with a line. 

After writing on the stub the date, the amount, and 
the name of the payee, there should be a notation of the 
use to which the money was put, for instance, “ To 
Ward and Company, for phonograph records ”; or it 
may be that the check was drawn in payment for meals, 

for telephone, or for dressmaking. 

137 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


On the first of each month the depositor asks the bank 
for her cancelled checks, signing a receipt therefor. 
She runs over her deposits as they are recorded in her 
pass-book, comparing them with the bank’s statement; 
and she likewise compares her cancelled checks with 
the amounts charged on the statement against her 
account. If a mistake is discovered, it should be 
brought to the attention of the bank as promptly as pos¬ 
sible. While a bank makes very few mistakes, it is 
operated by human beings, and no human being is infal¬ 
lible, however skilled and painstaking he may be. 

If the depositor is employed some distance from her 
bank, she can carry on all her business with it by mail 
after her introduction. Checks may be deposited by 
letter and cash by money-order or registered mail. 
Such personal expense money as the depositor may need 
she can obtain usually by cashing a check at her place 
of business, or at the office of a firm with which she 
carries on regular trade. 

A woman with a small income should avoid over¬ 
drafts. A man with a large business may be pardoned, 
and an occasional overdraft by a small depositor and 
customer may be overlooked. Repetition of the offense, 
however, may be followed by a warning that no fur¬ 
ther infringement will be allowed. One who over¬ 
draws frequently has little credit with the bank, and 
this fact will affect her credit standing everywhere 
in town. 


138 


THE VALUE OF A BANK-ACCOUNT 

A savings account in a bank where a checking account 
is carried gives stability to the former. One who has 
had savings is in a better position to borrow money in 
an emergency. 

Many business women rent safety deposit boxes, for 
which they pay to the bank $5 a y ear * these boxes 
are kept in absolute security such valuable docu¬ 
ments as a will, family papers of importance, contracts, 
insurance policies, bonds, stocks, and a small amount 
of jewelry. Larger boxes may be rented for the 
storage of silverware. 

Strangely enough, there remain in this country a 
few persons having the intelligence and enterprise to 
earn substantial sums of money who, instead of deposit¬ 
ing their wealth in a good bank for safe-keeping and 
in order that their savings may earn interest, stow it 
away in a mattress, in an old jar, or can, or bury it in 
the ground. Tens of thousands of dollars of this 
hidden treasure are withheld from the banks. Fire, 
flood, or robbers may sweep away the savings of a 
lifetime. Such has been the fate of hard-working, 
thrifty men and women again and again. 

It is a pretty good thing, of course, to heed that old 
saying, “ Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Two 
bank connections are better than one, where the size 
of a depositor’s income justifies a division of it. 

There is no little advantage in being known person¬ 
ally to the officers of the bank. While an official of a 

139 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 






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140 



























KEEPING A BUDGET OF EXPENSE 

bank will give advice to any depositor, it is only natural 
that he will take a keener and friendlier interest in 
advising and assisting one who is favorably known to 
him. No woman should hesitate to ask advice of her 
banker when necessary. She is entitled to that service 
from the bank that carries her account. 

KEEPING A BUDGET OF EXPENSE 

“ Why should I bother my head keeping a budget ? 

I have just so much salary, and I have to spend it. 
Why should I make a tiresome thing of it, and undergo 
the strain of keeping an account of my expenses? I 
won’t know the difference ten years from now.” 

How many women have said this, or words to this 
effect. They have believed sincerely in their philoso¬ 
phy, too, without realizing that it is only by construct¬ 
ing a budget that a woman can efficiently control 

her expenditure. 

Let us suppose that the far-seeing, clever business 
woman of today decides that she will make a budget 
of her income and give it a fair trial. It will not be 
six months, it is safe to say, before she will be laughing 
to herself at the recollection of how she used to saunter 
into a store aimlessly and buy a dress because it was 
pretty, never taking into account when or how she could 
pay for it. She will actually wonder how she ever 

141 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


managed to sleep of nights in those years when she 
did not have $100 saved up for a possible emergency. 

A budget is no complicated matter, after a little 
study has been put on it. It simply is a plan for making 
the best use of one’s resources. 

Why should any one spend money without plan? 
One undertakes no other enterprise of importance hap¬ 
hazardly, whether it be building a house, designing a 
dress, planting a garden, or giving a party. Persons 
of large wealth may be able to spend thoughtlessly. 
Not so the woman of small income who has an intelli¬ 
gent desire to secure the maximum of benefit and 
satisfaction from her resources at hand. 

There is no such thing, of course, as one person 
making a budget for another, since individual need is 
the basis on which every budget must be planned. 

Take the girl who is working in a city and who has 
practically no social life outside of her office associa¬ 
tion, or an occasional visit to the moving-picture show 
with a friend or two. A few good-looking business 
clothes, well selected, meet all the demands of a ward¬ 
robe for her. Her sister, living in their small home 
town and taking an active part in its social life, 
however, must have a simple party dress or two. 

One girl in rather delicate health may need more or 
less frequent consultations with a doctor, while her 
robust colleague in the same office has not a headache 

142 


KEEPING A BUDGET OF EXPENSE 


once a year. One girl’s work may require the purchase 
of books, the price of lectures or special courses for 
advancement. Every woman in the business or profes¬ 
sional world to a considerable extent in these matters 
must be a law unto herself. 

Chief among the items for which rather definite 
percentages must be set down are shelter, food, clothing, 
operating expense, savings, and advancement. 

Only thoughtful planning and some experimenting 
will result in deciding the exact percentages that shall 
be set aside for each one of these. One woman requires 
more food than another. One has a position which 
demands good clothes. A woman whose work makes a 
heavy drain upon her nervous energy, and who is 
inclined to be rather temperamental, may feel the wis¬ 
dom of sacrificing other items that she may enjoy the 
greatest possible quiet and comfort in her lodgings. 

If a woman is so fortunate as to live in her own 
home, or in the house with her family, many of the 
petty problems that trouble her homeless sisters are not 
present in her case. 

The first detail in the selection of a room is that it 
shall insure those conditions that are favorable to good 
health. If the windows are large and admit plenty of 
fresh air and sunshine, so much the better, particularly 
in the southern and southwestern states. Heat in winter 
is an important item. To live in a cold room because it 

143 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


is cheap and to run the risk of contracting pleurisy, 
or perhaps pneumonia, is not good business economy. 
Better, by far, save on luxuries than stint on room- 
rent when the latter course involves any menace to 
good health. 

Another important phase of this situation to be 
considered is the location of her lodging in relation to 
the business woman’s place of work. She may spend 
more for her room if she does not have to pay carfare, 
the latter item to be placed under the head of shelter 
or rent. The social value of the location is no small 
matter. A sensitive woman may be so unhappy when 
she is living far distant from her friends and associates, 
or when her environment is obnoxious to her, as to 
suffer a severe physical reaction. 

A young business woman of small salary and large 
responsibilities was advised by her physician to remove 
to a better apartment where she would have better light, 
more air, less noise, and a pleasanter outlook. 

“ I do not see how I possibly can afford it,” the sick 
girl said to the doctor. 

“ One move is not fatal,” replied the doctor. “ Why 
not try it and see if within a few months your earning 
capacity is not increased ? ” 

The move was made and the result was precisely that 
which the doctor had predicted. 

The smaller a woman’s income, the larger percentage 

144 


KEEPING A BUDGET OF EXPENSE 


of it she is compelled to put aside for the purchase of 
shelter. If her pay envelope contains but $15 or $18, 
she will likely have to set aside for rent no less than 
25 per cent. If she has reached the point where she 
is receiving $25 or $30 a week, she may spend a little 
less, that is, 22 or 23 per cent. Occasionally a girl who 
is blessed with a sweet nature and some personal attrac¬ 
tiveness finds a lonely woman in a big house who will 
let her have one room in it for a nominal sum that 
she may have youthful companionship. Or, during a 
business woman’s novitiate, when her pocket-book is 
no match for her taste, she may find an excellent room 
in a good family where there are small children and 
no servant, and where the parents are delighted to have 
her if she will remain home as guardian of the children 
one or two nights in the week. 

Food is the largest and most important item. A 
woman’s likes and dislikes must necessarily be con¬ 
sulted. Calories afford cold comfort, and it is not very 
satisfactory to feel obliged to choose turnips and cab¬ 
bage when the appetite is clamoring for more expensive 
dishes. In fact, food that merely is “ good for you ” 
does not provide the same degree of nourishment as that 
which is taken with appetite and zest. 

There is a happy medium, however, and the woman 
who would spend her food allowance with the idea of 
securing the maximum of personal satisfaction, to- 
10 145 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


gether with the maximum of nourishment, does well to 
study this matter of diet and purchase thoughtfully. 
If she happens to be quite uninformed on the subject, 
she will find plenty of good books in the public library. 
Otherwise, a good general rule to follow is to select 
a balanced diet composed chiefly of meat, starches, leafy 
vegetables, and dairy products. All of these are easily 
obtainable in those cities where cafeterias are estab¬ 
lished, and often at a moderate cost. 

Forty per cent, of the small salary, that is, one which 
ranges between $15 and $18, usually must be spent 
for food. Thirty per cent, is about the right proportion 
for the woman whose pay envelope contains $25 or $30 
a week. She who makes $50 to $75 a week can select 
whatever items of food she believes will be wholesome 
as well as toothsome, and think no more about it until 
she pays the bill. 

That girl who takes a piece of pie or a sandwich 
with a cup of coffee for her lunch when she is thin and 
ansemic, in order that she may save for an expensive 
suit or frock, is not a wise budget-builder. By such 
a policy, she injures not only her health, but her 
business prospect. An employer may like to see the 
women in his place of business well attired. He is not 
pleased, however, with a smartly dressed woman who 
has not sufficient vigor to carry on her work efficiently. 

Girls often spend larger sums than they realize at 

146 


KEEPING A BUDGET OF EXPENSE 


soft drink counters, the temptation being much greater 
and more constant when the counter is in the lobby of 
the building where they are at work. Ten cents a day 
spent for a soft drink, the same amount for candy, or 
a sack of salted nuts, is like a snowball, gaining in size 
as it goes. The girl who is earning a comfortable 
salary, and who is living at home without much cost 
to herself, may think that the expenditure of thirty or 
forty cents a day is negligible. Does she never pause 
to consider what such trifling sums would amount to 
at the end of a year; that if she saved that thirty or 
forty cents instead of handing it over the drink or the 
candy counter, she would have over $100 at the end 
of a year? 

That is not a large sum, it is true, but it might be kept 
for a sick fund, for an emergency in one’s family, or 
it might be applied as payment on several thousand dol¬ 
lars of life insurance, depending on the age of the 
policy-holder. 

Clothing is a difficult item to determine in budget¬ 
making. Protection of the body, formerly the prime use 
for clothing, has become almost secondary in importance 

to adornment and social needs. 

In America, where we have no classes and where 
every woman endeavors to be quite as attractively 
attired as the next, be that next woman the wife or the 
daughter of a millionaire, the girl with a small income 

147 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


must exercise the greatest discretion in the selection and 
purchase of her clothes. 

A young girl, starting in business and earning from 
$15 to $18 a week, hardly can afford to set aside more 
than 18 per cent, of that, or about $3.25 a week. When 
she reaches the $25-a-week mark, she very wisely will 
increase the item of clothing to 25 per cent. The 
woman whose income is $2500 or $3000 may indulge 
a rather wide range of desire and taste. 

A story is told of a clever woman, living in one of the 
larger cities of this country, who keeps an account of 
the cost of her clothing with relation to its term of ser¬ 
vice in this way: 

On the inside of her closet door she fastens a sheet 
of paper, with a typewritten list of her dresses, suits, 
cloaks, and hats, together with the cost of each article. 
Each time she wears a dress, she makes a pencil mark 
opposite it. When she is ready to discard that dress, 
she divides its cost by the number of times she 
has worn it. She uses the same system with other 
garments and hats. In this way, she ascertains 
which articles of clothing have been most expensive 
from the standpoint of service, and which have yielded 
the largest return in wear for their initial cost. 

In taking into account the cost of clothing, a woman 
in business finds that scrupulous care of her dresses, 
hats, suits, and accessories extends their term of use. 

148 


KEEPING A BUDGET OF EXPENSE 


Such costs as those of laundry, dry cleaning, cos¬ 
metics, stationery, stamps, parcels-post, and all paid 
services are charged to “ operating,” which may con¬ 
sume 6 or 7 per cent. 

Under health and advancement come physician and 
dentist fees, club and church dues, gifts of a personal 
nature and those for the public good, special education, 
reading-matter, travel, vacations, and amusements. 

While the percentages for shelter, food, and clothing 
do not vary greatly with increase in income, larger 
sums usually are spent for health and advancement in 
proportion to income as it grows. The small wage- 
earner scarcely can set aside more than five per cent, 
of her income, while a woman in the $2000 or $3000- 
a-year class may spend as much as 15 or 20 per cent. 

Certain churches expect their members to tithe their 
incomes, or give to religion 10 per cent. This is a 
matter, of course, that must be left to the good judg¬ 
ment and conscience of the individual. 

Most women in business are asked to make contribu¬ 
tions to the public good with the same regularity and 
frequency as business men. No woman need be 
ashamed to give a sum, however small, if that is only 
what she can afford. Her dollar or her half-dollar may 
be larger in the sight of God than the $100 check con¬ 
tributed by her prosperous employer. In the eyes of 
all right-thinking persons it is not the amount that is so 

149 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


important as the spirit in which the gift is made. The 
small amount that is tendered with a gracious smile 
and a remark: “ I am so glad you came, and I wish this 
small sum were ten times as much/’ warms the heart of 
a solicitor, who is likely to comment later, “ I wish 
the average employer were as generous as the girl who 
works for him.” 

It happens, occasionally, that a woman whose heart 
is bigger than her income, gives much more than she 
can afford. If she had made a budget of her income, 
and had set aside a definite amount for gifts, she would 
not have yielded to an impulse to give out of proportion, 
and perhaps cause herself subsequent embarrassment. 

Accident or sickness may run away with half a year’s 
income, the whole situation being taken arbitrarily out 
of the hands of the individual. An emergency of this 
kind, involving doctor, hospital and laboratory fees, may 
necessitate strict economy in the months following in 
order that a financial balance may be established once 
more. Fortunate is the woman who has made ample 
preparation for the possible rainy day. 

Taking in sail in that detail of the budget which pro¬ 
vides for amusement is, perhaps, easiest. Economy, 
nevertheless, should not reach the point of eliminating 
all pleasure from one’s scheme of life. 

Every budget must allow for saving, if that be only 
a few cents in the week. She who has $18 a week 

150 


KEEPING A BUDGET OF EXPENSE 


should try to save one of them, and the girl drawing 
$25 should put aside 10 per cent. The larger the income 
the larger the amount that may be put in savings. Most 
life insurance companies make their estimate of proper 
savings on the basis of 15 per cent. 

To revamp a budget on the basis of increased earn¬ 
ings or income is an exhilarating experience. To read¬ 
just one to the limitations of a decreasing income is 
correspondingly difficult and, it may be, depressing. 

Certain women possess a rare faculty for effecting 
this sort of readjustment by making a game of seeing 
how little they can spend and at the same time have the 
necessaries of life and enjoy a considerable degree of 
comfort and happiness. A few women possess what 
amounts to genius in such economic management. Men, 
as a sex, do not take so cheerfully, nor so kindly, to this 
game of economy as their sisters and wives. In fact, 
it is difficult to find a single man who could see anything 
amusing about it. 

The process of readjustment is one that many women 
found expedient during the war and the period of 
inflation that followed. With rising prices and no 
corresponding increase in income, many of them had 
to do radical retrenching, an experience that, while diffi¬ 
cult enough at the time, bore excellent fruit in the 
knowledge they were able to gain during that period. 

When should a budget be made? 

151 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


Preferably a few weeks before the beginning of the 
New Year. In any event work on it should start some 
time in advance of its being put into operation. The 
more fixed one’s habits of spending and saving, the 
more easily is the budget made. 


























M 

0 


B 


U 


B 




B 


U 


B 


II 


B 


JZ. 




J 
























F 
























M 
























A 
























M 
























J 
























J 























A 
























S 
























0 
























N 
























D 























1 

























Facsimile of a leaf in a small pocket budget book. B stands for the amount 
of the budget; U for the amount actually used. The letters from J to D are the 
initials of the twelve months, beginning with January. The space between the 
heavy lines indicates the weeks, five being allowed for one month. 


If the novice in budget-making will gather up her 
cancelled checks for the year past, or, if she has kept 
the stubs to her check-books, she will have little diffi¬ 
culty in apportioning her income. Her expenditures 
for food and shelter will not vary much from week to 
week, month to month. Her largest outlays for clothing 
usually will come in the spring and the fall, although if 

152 














































KEEPING A BUDGET OF EXPENSE 


she is a clever woman who picks up bargains at the end 
of the season, her heaviest buying will be done in 
December and July. 

The individual budget can be made and kept easily in 
a little leather-covered, quadrille-ruled book, three 
inches by five, which can be carried in a wrist-bag. 
Such a book may be purchased for a few cents, or it 
may be secured from one of those banks that distribute 
them as advertising. 

As the majority of women workers are paid by the 
week, the better plan for them is to budget their incomes 
by a week, a few months ahead, one year if possible. 
As a basis for constructing a budget, a woman whose 
weekly earnings amount to $18 may allocate the per¬ 
centages in approximately the following sums: 


Shelter - 

Food . 

Clothing 
Operating .. 

Savings - 

Advancement 


25% or $4.50 
40% or 7.20 
18% or 3.24 
6% or 1.08 
6 % or 1.08 
5% or .90 


On the basis of $30, the budget may be made accord¬ 


ing to the following estimates: 

Shelter . 

Food . 

Clothing ..... 

Operating . 

Savings . 

Advancement . 


20% or $6.00 
33% or 10.00 
25% or 7.50 
7% or 2.30 
7.5% or 2.50 
5% or 1.70 


153 














TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


The bigger the income, the larger the percentages 
which may be set aside for savings, advancement, and 
those items which raise the standard of living. 

As has been said before, all estimates are subject 
to change as necessity or emergency may arise. 

Perhaps the maker of the budget is going to change 
her place of residence on April i. If she moves only 
from house to house, the change may involve no more 
than the cost of transferring her trunk. If, however, 
she is going to another town or city, she will prepare to 
meet the cost by saving several months ahead, and in 
addition, perhaps, retrenching for several weeks after 
she has made the change. Except for those who have 
rather small incomes, only a week-to-week saving in 

advance will provide for the annual vacation trip. 

Banks offer a happy plan for extra Christmas expen¬ 
ditures in the “ Christmas Saving Club.” To become a 
member, one deposits a definite sum each week, begin¬ 
ning January i, and the whole fund, plus interest, is 
payable to the depositor the following December. 

Only by putting down an estimated sum for each item 

# 

and comparing that sum each week with the actual 
amount spent can a budget be worked out satisfactorily. 
This record of estimated and actual expenses provides 
a very interesting study. It may be kept in the little 
book heretofore mentioned month by month, and week 
by week. 


154 


PREPARING FOR THE RAINY DAY 


Budget-making and operating is a liberal education 
in the control of expenditure. A budget may place 
strictures, it is true, upon the impulse to spend every 
available dollar in having “ one grand, good time,” but 
it need not be a depressing enterprise, and it should not 
in any case take the joy out of life. 

George Eliot once said that “ to all wholesome minds 
economy has a charm.” To any woman who is inter¬ 
ested both in her present and future, the making of a 
budget and the keeping of it with such occasional adjust¬ 
ments as may be expedient, should yield a certain 
pleasure in the direction of her choices and in planning 
for their satisfaction. 

When large responsibilities come to those who have 
learned the use and the control of money, the burden is 
by far the lighter since the bearer is the better pre¬ 
pared to carry on. In fact, a well-built budget is much 
more than a material contrivance. It is a means to the 
development of character. It is a schooling in values, 
and not infrequently, among those women who live 
apart from family and have no personal obligations, 
it may be an aid to the cultivation of a social 
consciousness. 

PREPARING FOR THE RAINY DAY 

Saving is one of life’s most useful forms of discipline. 

There is no school of self-restraint equal to it. 

155 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 

Whenever a woman finds that she can save some 
portion of her weekly or monthly income she has made 
some strides in self-control, this world offering, as it 
does, so many alluring temptations to part with one’s 
money. Unless her income is pitifully small, it is noth¬ 
ing short of folly for her to live up to every cent of it. 

Not one of us leads a charmed life, and not one of us 
is insured against illness, personal misfortunes, or loss. 
Illness at some period of life is the lot of the majority. 
Danger of accident is increasing with the speed of 
modern life. Old age and unproductive years are inevi¬ 
table unless death intervenes. 

The story of what people in these United States do, 
or rather what they do not do, to make their old age 
safe from poverty, is told with tragic definiteness by the 
life insurance statistics. 

Taking one hundred men at the age of twenty-five 
and following them through life, it will be found that 
at the age of sixty-five, thirty-six of them have died. 
Only one out of the remaining number is wealthy. Only 
four are well-to-do. Five are able to live on what they 
are earning, and fifty-four of them are dependent. In 
other words, only ten out of sixty-four men at the age 
of sixty-five are self-sustaining, and half of that num¬ 
ber must keep on working in order that they may have 
bed and board. 

We Americans, until recently, have been a nation of 

156 


PREPARING FOR THE RAINY DAY 


change-scatterers and money-wasters. We have a way 
of spending a dime here, a quarter there, or a dollar for 
many things we could do without. Thrift campaigns 
during the war taught many of us a useful lesson, and 
we are improving steadily in that respect. 

For the woman whose work is irregular, a savings 
account is indispensable. During her profitable season 
she must lay up a surplus to be used during another 
period when she may be “ laid off.” This necessity is 
the greater for those women who follow one of the 
“ seasonal trades.” 

Sickness is the commonest emergency arising in the 
lives of business women. If every woman saved a 
reasonable sum against a possible period of illness, 
there actually would be less sickness because there 
would be less worry and less fear. The woman who 
lies down at night knowing that she has $200, or 

$1000 to tide her over a possible emergency, is the 
woman, other things being equal, who is going to enjoy 

the most refreshing sleep. 

The need for saving is imperative for the woman 
who is over thirty-five years of age. Up to that time, 
her earnings may not have been large, and she may 
have found it expedient to invest in herself. She has 
taken special courses, perhaps, and she has bought 
books. She has travelled and has seen the world a 
little, depending upon increased skill, knowledge, and 

157 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


efficiency to bring her larger returns. But, after that 
age, she must not overlook the rather unpleasant 
fact that she has less time for saving than her 
younger sister, and her health, also, may not be quite 
so dependable. 

That pioneer American philosopher of saving, Benja¬ 
min Franklin, told us that “ money can beget money, 
and its offspring can beget more.” 

Let us suppose that a woman earning $30 a week 
saves $5 of it, depositing it in the savings bank. That 
small deposit, earning interest compounded semi¬ 
annually at 4 per cent., will accumulate until she has 
$500 in less than two years. 

She can keep right on at that rate for thirty-five 
years, leaving her money in the savings bank, and have 
a sum that, drawing 4 per cent, interest, will keep her 
from starving if it will not sustain her in affluence. She 
may earn more than 4 per cent, on her savings by 
investing them from time to time as she makes an 
accumulation, always asking her banker and never 
scorning his advice. 

As soon as possible, every woman who has a reason¬ 
able earning capacity should purchase a life insurance 
policy. The younger she is the smaller will be her 
premiums per thousand, and the better chance she will 
have for passing a physical examination. Let her start 
with a $1000, or $1500 policy. If the payment of the 

158 


PREPARING FOR THE RAINY DAY 


annual premium is a little difficult for her, the com¬ 
pany will gladly arrange the payments in quarterly 
instalments, although this method will cost a little 
more per thousand than the annual premium. Fortunate 
is the woman who can buy the bulk of her life insur¬ 
ance before she reaches the forty mark. Her burden 
will not be so great as if she is forced to wait until she 
is forty or forty-five. 

Even though she may have no persons dependent 
upon her for support, a self-respecting worker likes to 
feel that, in the event of her death, her family will not 
face a burden of expense or debt. Every woman should 
carry sufficient insurance to pay all her outstanding 
obligations and defray the expenses of her last illness 
and her funeral. 

While the older and larger insurance companies, on 
the whole, offer about the same advantages to the policy¬ 
holder, there are some minor differences, important 
enough in the making of a contract. A careful business 
woman will not obligate herself for the purchase of a 
policy until she has made a thorough investigation of 
the best companies, and has satisfied herself that she is 
insuring her life in that one that will vouchsafe to her 

the maximum of protection. 

Many business women are glad to pay a slight excess 
of premium in order to have added to their policies such 
features as the double indemnity clause, which provides 

159 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


for the payment of double the face of the policy in case 
death is caused by accident; or, the double liability 
clause, which provides for the suspension of the pay¬ 
ment of premiums and pays the policy-holder $10 per 
month per thousand in case of fatal or incurable illness 
up to the age of sixty, without invalidating the face 
value of the policy. 

The endowment policy is liked by many women who 
thus secure protection for their dependents in case of 
death, and, in addition, a saving, plus interest, to be 
paid to the policy-holder when the policy matures. This 
is an excellent form of saving for the woman who is 
“ on her own.” 

Insurance on the annuity plan is also a good means of 
saving for a woman who cannot, by reason of her situa¬ 
tion, expect greatly to increase her earnings and who 
must have a retirement fund. The plan, of course, 
is not desirable for one who has dependents that must 
be taken care of in the event of death. 

Poverty and youth do not make an unpicturesque 
combination. Youth can say with abandon, “ Let us 
eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” Youth 
dares to stake all on one throw. With some grace, it 
can endure the odors of rich men’s dinners and the 
sight of rich men’s mansions as it passes gaily and 
thoughtlessly down the street. 

Those delightfully intriguing characters in Bohemia, 

160 


WHAT ARE SAFE INVESTMENTS ? 


Mimi Pinson, Musette, and Francine were very happy, 
we are told, in their wretched poverty. Francine, poor 
creature, was content to die with her hands resting in 
the muff her lover had bought with his last sou. 

But, suppose we transform Mimi, Musette, and 
Francine into old women, their beauty faded, their once 
sparkling eyes dulled, their hair white. They are 
pathetic, even hideous. Probably, they are lonely and 
loveless. It is so terribly tragic to be both old and poor. 

George Washington declared that economy was the 
foundation-stone on which to build happy homes and 
sound nations. Abraham Lincoln warned the people of 
his time to save their money lest they be forced to pay 
the price of thriftlessness in poverty and disgrace. 
John Wesley recommended a broad policy of making 
all you can and giving all you can. James J. Hill, the 
great railroad builder and financier, was uncompro¬ 
mising in his attitude on the saving question. He said 
that if you cannot save money, you would better drop 
out, “ for the seed of success is not in you.” 

The woman who is known by her friends to have 
savings, investments, and perhaps a little property, and 
who takes intelligent care of her resources, is held in 
respect by those who know her. She can secure credit 
for the asking, and her account is sought by the banks. 

WHAT ARE SAFE INVESTMENTS? 

How often a thrifty woman has labored and saved a 
part of her earnings only to have them swept away by 
an unfortunate investment! 


11 


161 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


For years, perhaps, she has deprived herself of pretty 
clothes and many pleasures. She has remained at home 
when she longed to see a good play, to hear a great 
musician, or an interesting lecture, saying to herself 
that she would put the price of admission into her sav¬ 
ings fund. There were summers when she denied her¬ 
self a vacation in order that she might add a few 
hundred dollars to her little capital. 

Then, one day, a suave, attractive and eloquent sales¬ 
man for an oil company, for a new industry or a 
stock swindle, persuades her to invest in his enterprise 
her savings of years. 

“ Why be content to let your money earn a miserable 
4 per cent, for you when we can make you 20 or 30 
per cent. ? ” he urges. 

Perhaps she cannot quite make up her mind at the 
first visit. So he returns, three or four times, it may 
be, to offer new arguments. 

Finally persuaded, she places in his hands the whole 
or part of her hard-won earnings. What is her delight 
when in a few months she receives an astonishingly 
large dividend! She has taken the first step on the 
royal road to riches. She sees in her mind’s eye the 
beautiful home that is in store for her, the handsome 
car she is going to drive. During the first two or three 
dividend-paying periods, she lives in a glow of enthu¬ 
siasm. If the first investment did not take all of her 

162 


WHAT ARE SAFE INVESTMENTS ? 


savings, she is likely to put in more and to persuade her 
friends to follow her example. Such an opportunity 
is not to be lost. 

After a little while the company stops paying. She 
writes for an explanation and is promptly reassured. 
It may be after several months, or it may not be for a 
year, that she is confronted with the painful realization 
that her money has departed to return no more. Not 
only has she forfeited those comforts, pleasures, and 
opportunities which she had denied herself for the 
sake of augmenting her savings—she has had razed to 
the ground by inefficient or unscrupulous speculators 
the barrier which she so painstakingly had reared 
against the privations of old age. 

This is one of the greatest of human tragedies, and 
it has been enacted with variations again and again. 

The speculative impulse, it goes without saying, is 
responsible for large gains as well as for losses. The 
uncertainty of life and the hope, common to both men 
and women, that in making a speculation they may be 
luckier than some others, incites in them the desire to 
take a chance. “ Nothing ventured, nothing gained ” 
is their motto. If a woman really wants to take a 
chance, and if she is fully convinced of the honesty 
and sincerity of those who ask her to invest with them, 
she may risk a small portion of her capital on an enter¬ 
prise that promises substantial returns. She is very 

163 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 

foolish, however, if she risks more than a small portion 
of her savings, for risking money where there is not 
a fair surplus is too hazardous a game for the majority 
of self-supporting women to play. 

Unquestionably, the safest of all investments is a 
United States government bond. It was not until 
1917, the first year of our nation’s participation in 
the Great War, that the average citizen of this country 
became interested in buying this country’s bonds. The 
financial exigencies of war, together with the educational 
propaganda of the four Liberty Loan drives, taught a 
great many men and women how to purchase govern¬ 
ment bonds. While many who were compelled to sell 
their bonds long before they matured, lost money on 
them, those who have been able to hold theirs have sold 
them at par or above. Now, in place of Liberty bonds, 
the government is offering United States Treasury 
certificates bearing interest at 4*4 P er cent. These 
bonds are sold in denominations of $25, $100, and 
$1000. For a $100 bond the purchaser pays $80. It 
matures in five years. 

The bonds of a county or a municipality usually are 
secure investments. When purchased they should be 
registered; otherwise they are negotiable and can be 
converted, by any one who might steal them, into cash. 

One of the safest and most satisfactory investments 
for a small capitalist is stock in a well-managed building 

164 


WHAT ARE SAFE INVESTMENTS ? 


and loan association. The plan offered by the building 
and loan company is a boon to the small wage-earner, 
who may start with as little as 50 cents a month. There 
are few wage-earners who could not purchase five 
shares of stock, requiring a payment of $2.50 a month, 
and many begin with ten shares, for which they pay $5 
a month. Additional stock may be purchased at any 
time, and the investment thereby increased. 

Interest or dividend rates vary according to locality 
from 4 to 12 per cent. Rates are lower in the East 
and higher in the West. In those states where the 
legal rate of interest is 8 per cent., the dividend on 
building and loan stock is not likely to be more than 
6 y 2 or 7 per cent. 

Building and loan associations are under the super¬ 
vision of their state governments. In many states there 
is a special building and loan association boaid. In 
other states the companies are under the supervision 
of the state auditor. In still others, they aie iegu- 
lated by the state corporation commission or the 
state banking commission. Examinations are made 
annually or oftener. Failure is rare among building 
and loan companies. Statistics show that in the period 
from 1917 to 1921 there were seven times as 
many failures among banks as among building and 
loan associations. 

The character of the building and loan business tends 

165 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


to keep the men in it straight. Loans in excess of 60 
per cent, of the total value of a property are not made. 
Then, as one building and loan official has said, “ There 
is a tangible something in the struggle which families 
make to get homes that appeals to the best there is in 
the hearts of building and loan officers, thereby greatly 
diminishing the temptation to do wrong.” 

A first mortgage on real estate is a safe investment, 
the interest rate again varying according to locality. 
The purchase of real estate is more hazardous, inasmuch 
as the market rises and falls. Depreciation on property 
must be counted. A piece of property that is in the 
business center now may be removed considerably 
from the center of trade ten or fifteen years hence. The 
value of residence property, bought in other than a 
restricted district, may fall sharply with the invasion of 
two or three stores. 

The tax rate, also, is a factor to be considered in the 
purchase of real estate. The tendency is toward higher 
taxes in most states and many cities have a rate of 4 to 
6 cents on the dollar. Taxes, insurance, depreciation, 
and repairs, as well as interest on the money invested, 
must be figured in the list of liabilities when an invest¬ 
ment in property is under consideration. 

A home is perhaps one of the best investments that 
many wage-earning women can make. The cost of 
owning a small home, when paid for in installments, 

166 


WHAT ARE SAFE INVESTMENTS? 


usually is less than rent. When the home is paid for, 
the owner has a piece of property from which she can 
derive an income if she does not want to live in it. 
A home as an investment is particularly desirable for a 
woman of family. In it she can have such a sense of 
security and permanency as she never will be able 
to feel if she lives in a rented house. She can plant 
her own vine and fig-tree, and she may make from time 
to time such changes and improvements as her taste may 
suggest and her purse will allow. 

Home ownership makes for better citizenship, for a 
keener interest in city planning and improvements, and 
in the administration of government. Home ownership 
has a charm that is felt by the rich and poor alike. It 
is a bond of fellowship between those who labor and 
those who are blessed with an abundance of this world’s 
goods. When a woman shuts her desk, leaves her 
counter, her work-bench, or machine, and goes to her 
home after a day of toil, she has a sense of reward and 
well-being that no rented apartment, however attractive, 

can supply. 

No woman should purchase property with the assist¬ 
ance of an agent alone. A few dollars spent in fees to 
a good lawyer, who will oversee the transaction, often 

means many dollars saved later on. 

In any event, a woman who has not had much experi¬ 
ence in investment should seek the best advice obtam- 

167 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


able. Her banker should advise her wisely, one she 
has known and one who knows her. 

If a woman follows the rule of conservative invest¬ 
ment, she may renounce an occasional opportunity to 
make a large profit. On the other hand, she will suffer 
no loss of capital and she will enjoy that peace of 
mind and sense of security which come as the result 
of applying the rule of “ safety first.” 


CHAPTER VII 


THE BUSINESS WOMAN AND HER FAMILY 
THE WORKER WHO HAS A CHILD 
ALL THE COMFORTS OF HOME IN ONE ROOM 



CHAPTER VII 


THE BUSINESS WOMAN AND HER FAMILY 

Adjusting her relation to her family often is a 
problem in the life of a woman who is employed. 

Women living at home usually sustain one of three 
relations to their families with respect to money. There 
is the young girl, belonging to a family in comfortable 
circumstances, from whom her parents are unwilling to 
accept payment for either board or room, and who, 
therefore, has the use of her wages, undivided. There 
is the girl who either from inclination or necessity pays 
her share of the household expense. Finally, there is 
the woman who gives her entire earnings to her family, 
saving for her own use a sum sufficient to meet her 
personal expense. 

This is not the proper place to enter into the discus¬ 
sion of the wisdom and justice of a girl’s working for 
“ pin-money ” which she spends on smart clothing, on 
costly accessories, and the thousand and one small 
luxuries which are offered for sale to womankind. It 
is proper to say, however, that the fact that she is not 
required to make a contribution to the family treasury 
should impel her to make an occasional gift to her 
parents or her younger brothers and sisters, and perhaps 

171 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


purchase from time to time an article that will add 
appreciably to the beauty and comfort of the house. 

How incongruous it is to see a young woman who, 
out of her substantial salary, buys costly and fashion¬ 
able clothing, emerge in the morning from a ram¬ 
shackle house and return there at night! Why does 
she not spend less on finery, and have a coat of paint 
put on the dingy place? Why does she not buy new 
rugs for the living-room and the dining-room, some 
good linens and glass for the family table, a pretty 
lamp, or an attractive chair ? How can she find genuine 
satisfaction in personal indulgence when the lawn 
around her home needs to be cut? Why does it not 
occur to her to buy one hat less during the season and 
spend the money saved in that way in the purchase of 
shrubbery or flowers? 

Many an employed woman finds the greatest satis¬ 
faction in adding to the beauty, the comfort, and con¬ 
venience of her parents’ home, in bestowing upon her 
family some of the pleasant things and the luxuries 
that they have not been able to secure. She feels, in 
making these contributions to her home, a keener pride 
in it, and it seems all the more to be hers. She 
observes a new brightness in the eye of her mother, 
a lightness in her step, as a new piece of furniture or 
new curtains are brought into the house. It is a 
gracious act, too, for her to purchase occasionally a pair 

172 


THE BUSINESS WOMAN AND HER FAMILY 


of tickets for the theater or a concert and take with 
her a parent or a relative. 

In contradistinction to the girl who works in order 
to buy luxuries or that she may make acquaintances and 
establish social connections through the business world, 
is the young woman who enters upon a business or pro¬ 
fessional career with the same ambition to succeed as if 
she were a man. With propriety she may expect more 
assistance from her family, unless its members are 
heavily burdened. During those years she is trying to 
build a practice in law or medicine, or in the formative 
period of a business career while she is giving herself 
to her work day and night, she may accept some per¬ 
sonal services from her mother or a sister who is living 
at home. One exceedingly busy and successful woman 
doctor hardly has found time to buy her clothing in the 
last ten years. Her Sister has shopped for her, and 
her mother has mended for her. In turn, she is now 
able to give them pleasures they did not have before. 

Another young woman whose family suffered the loss 
of the husband and father and his income, as well, is 
fortunate in having a mother who creates a home con¬ 
dition which enables the daughter to continue to enjoy 
at least a portion of her former social life. Working as 
she does in a bank, she usually is at home by 4 o’clock. 
Upon her arrival, there is a hot bath ready for her. 
Then she puts on a dressing-gown and rests until it is 

173 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


time to dress for a dinner, or to have a simple meal at 
home before getting ready for an evening engagement. 

“ Is my mother right in expecting me to help her 
with the housework as well as bear my share of the 
household expense?” is a question that many a self- 
supporting girl has asked of herself. 

If she can give her mother assistance with the house¬ 
work without sacrificing all of her hours for recreation, 
and if she can be helpful at home without giving herself 
too much fatigue, it is the kindly and gracious thing 
for her to do. The size of the household, the number of 
persons in the family, the mother’s ability to manage the 
housework, the state of her health, are factors that 
must be taken into consideration. On the other hand, 
there are tasks which make such great demands upon a 
woman’s strength and nerve-force that she can ill 
afford to work at home. A woman who has stood 
behind the counter all day, showing goods and trying to 
please customers, does not feel much like washing the 
dinner dishes when she returns at night. Neither does 
one who has sat all day at the typewriter feel much 
like helping with the family sewing during her even¬ 
ing hours. 

The employed daughter should not forget that she 
owes her mother some companionship. It is often a 
severe disappointment to a mother who has labored 
arduously in the rearing of her family when one by 

174 


THE BUSINESS WOMAN AND HER FAMILY 


one her daughters leave the schoolroom for the office, 
the store, or the factory, and she is not able to enjoy 
in them the companionship she has craved. Must she 
continue forever in the role of the patient Martha, 
cooking, cleaning, and performing a daily routine of 
household tasks? 

In a measure they may recompense her for her loss 
of their companionship and their assistance by planning 
an evening’s pleasure for her, or a Sunday outing. 
They may perform the lighter tasks about the house, 
and they can take home to her at night something of the 
atmosphere, something of the stir and bustle and human 
incident of the workaday world. 

Home conditions that are favorable to a man’s 
development in business or the professions are matters 
of common discussion. An efficient wife and home¬ 
maker may transform an ordinary four cylinder man 
into a powerful twelve cylinder human machine. In a 
lesser degree, perhaps, the rule holds good with a 
woman in business. Not a little of her success will 
depend upon the attitude of her family toward her and 
the environment in which she lives. 

Nagging and scolding will tear her down faster than 
the day’s work. A brutal brother has been known to 
play shipwreck with his sister’s development by keeping 
her in a constant state of nervous agitation. A fretful, 
discontented mother has been a heavy cross to many 

175 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


a clever, aspiring young girl. A father in a chronic 
state of ill-humor, who eats in sullen silence and makes 
captiously critical remarks to her, may undermine 
her efficiency. 

That woman who is happy in her home relations, 
who encounters a spirit of welcome and good cheer 
whenever she enters the house, has a tremendous advan¬ 
tage in business over her coworker who must encoun¬ 
ter complaining, ill-humor, and backbiting the moment 
she opens the front door. 

THE WORKER WHO HAS A CHILD 

If a dramatist ever writes a play entitled “ The 
Superwoman,” he should take for his heroine one of 
those energetic, courageous, and resourceful women 
who manage to rear one or more children successfully 
while earning her family’s daily bread. 

The woman who has no other responsibility than self- 
support may feel that she has plenty of problems, and 
very often she has. Her task, however, is child’s play 
when compared with that of the woman, deprived of her 
husband and the father of her children, who must 
earn a living while leaving little ones at home. Per¬ 
forming the double duty of child-rearing and bread¬ 
winning is sufficient to tax the mental, moral, and 

physical capacities of the strongest woman. For one 

176 


THE WORKER WHO HAS A CHILD 


who is not blessed with excellent health and rather 
unusual powers of endurance, the burden often is 
almost intolerable. 

“ How shall my children be cared for properly while 
I am away from them? ” is the cry that goes up from 
many an anxious working mother’s heart. 

Each woman must work out her own salvation 
according to her individual capacity and her income. 

Fortunate, indeed, is the wage-earning woman whose 
mother can live in the house with her and give to her 
children that tender and solicitous care which a grand¬ 
mother is wont to lavish upon her daughter’s family. 
Sometimes it is a sister or other near relative who will 
feed and guard and discipline the children during their 
mother’s absence. Occasionally a mother will find it 
expedient to make the supreme sacrifice of sending 
her children to near relatives who are in a position to 
provide them with excellent training and an inspiring 
environment. While in a measure they may grow 
away from her, she has the compensating assurance that 
they are developing under better conditions than she 
would be able to provide for them if she kept them 
with her. 

Hundreds of women, living in cities, who make a 
small wage, too small to employ a home-helper, are 
compelled to keep their children in day-nurseries. Other 
mothers for a nominal sum place their small children 

177 


12 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


in church schools. Those who have better incomes may 
effect one of several arrangements for keeping their 
children at home. 

One plucky woman, who before her marriage had 
sold silks in a department store, secured a similar posi¬ 
tion with the same establishment after her husband’s 
death. Her total assets at this time were a little home, 
two very young children, and $1000 of indebtedness. 
How could she make a living for herself and the chil¬ 
dren, and at the same time clear the debt on her house ? 

By advertising in a local paper she found a couple 
who agreed to board the family and care for the two 
children, except on Saturday afternoons and Sundays, 
for the use of five out of the six rooms. 

It became this woman’s practice to rise early to bathe, 
dress, and give breakfast to her children before she 
went to her work. 

m It goes without saying that she was forced to 
economize closely. All the clothing for her children 
and much of that worn by herself she made in the 
evenings, on Saturday afternoons, on holidays, and dur¬ 
ing her rather brief summer vacations. While she was 
able to buy no luxuries, the family never wanted for 
wholesome food, including fresh milk for the children. 

As the little boy and girl grew older, she set aside 

% • 

Friday evening for amusement, which usually took the 
form of a wholesome picture show. During the earlier 

178 


THE WORKER WHO HAS A CHILD 


years of her struggle the family could not afford the 
admission price and carfare both going to and from 
the theater. Their plan, accordingly, was to start early 
in the evening, to walk to the theater in good weather, 
and sometimes make the trip homeward afoot. As 
the mother believed this much recreation to be essential 
to the well-being of her children and for her own 
mental relief, only in an emergency was the Friday 
evening excursion omitted from the week’s program. 

Within a few years, it became necessary to the com¬ 
fort of the woman’s growing family to occupy more 
house-room. The boy and the girl must have a proper 
place in which to entertain their playmates and friends. 
With the mother’s promotion to the position of head 
of her department, she was enabled to take over the 
entire house. An elderly woman whom she had known 
from childhood was persuaded to become housekeeper 
to the family for several years. Upon the death of this 
housekeeper, the girl, who was fifteen, and the boy, 
who at that time was twelve, began assuming a share 
of the housework, and for several years past the com¬ 
bined efforts of the three members of the family have 
made it possible for them to dispense with all out¬ 
side assistance. 

From the time of her husband’s death, the widow had 
managed to save a little money each year. Selling her 
home, she added to the selling price her savings and a 

179 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


few thousands she was able to borrow, making a fund 
sufficient for the construction of a modest apartment- 
house, the rents to pay the total cost of construction 
within eight or nine years. This one woman’s plan of 
management may suggest ways and means to other 
women similarly placed. 

The principal of this story was particularly fortunate 
in that she was the possessor of excellent health and 
more than usual endurance and energy. In the case 
of a working mother whose health is not so dependable 
and who has not a great deal of physical stamina, it is 
imperative that she shall bring to the planning of her 
work and the management of her affairs economy of 
time and strength. If she must perform all of her 
housework, or even a part of it, her labor should be 
simplified as much as possible by removing all useless 
ornaments from her rooms, and by providing herself 
and her children with clothing that is at once simple 
and durable. How unwise is that working mother 
who clutters her rooms with many photographs, with 
ornaments and knick-knacks which have to be handled 
and dusted frequently, or who spends a rare leisure 
hour embroidering her little girl’s clothes! 

A woman who studies the subject will discover many 
short cuts in housekeeping, such as folding away sheets, 
towels, and knitted underwear without ironing. A 

180 


THE WORKER WHO HAS A CHILD 


fireless cooker is an invaluable adjunct to the woman 
who must go home after a fatiguing day in the office, 
store, or factory to prepare the evening meal. 

When a woman must both earn the living and take 
care of her family her good health is her greatest asset 
and her chief stock in trade. Often at the sacrifice of 
pleasures and social opportunities it must be preserved. 
Those florid stories of the woman who ministers well 
to her family, who occupies an important and taxing 
position, who looks in on her children for an hour in 
the evening, and who then dresses for an evening 
engagement which keeps her up until midnight or after 
six days out of the week, featured largely in popular 
journals, are fictitious. No woman, however robust, 
can burn the candle at both ends, unless it be in an 
emergency or over a short period of time. 

“ Is there not some way by which I can support 
myself and my family without going outside of my 
home ? ” is a question many widows ask. Yes, there 
are ways, although they are by no means so numerous 
and usually they are not so lucrative as work that is 
done out in the world. 

Hundreds of women are supporting themselves and 
their children in comfort by renting rooms and giving 
meals. This method is the more easily available, of 
course, to the woman who is left with a home. If she 
likes to cook, and if she knows how to make a home 

181 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


for the homeless, she can start into business any day in 
the week. The more attractive her home, the more 
satisfying and appetizing her table, the greater will be 
the demand for her rooms and her meals. 

Plain sewing and dressmaking are other dependable 
means of making a living for women who need to 
remain at home. Still others give lessons in music, 
painting, and the languages, or tutor students prepara¬ 
tory to entering college or, during vacation, those who 
have failed. 

A woman who is favorably situated in the matter 
of land and location may make a living at home by 
keeping bees. She may keep them for the honey, for 
the increase and sale of the bees, or for the breeding and 
rearing of queens. It goes without saying that in order 
to make a success of this industry, she must have a 
thorough knowledge of bee-culture. If she keeps the 
bees for the sake of the honey, she must know how to 
market her product. It is an interesting occupation, 
keeping her busier one-half of the year than the other, 
and it will enable her to spend much of her time out 
of doors. 

The breeding and sale of pedigreed dogs is a work 
in which a number of women have succeeded, especially 
those living near large cities where pedigreed dogs are 
in demand. Preparation for this work may be made 
largely through reading. A certain amount of veteri- 

182 


THE WORKER WHO HAS A CHILD 


nary knowledge is valuable, and a thorough study of 
the laws of heredity is helpful. 

A few women have made a good living by drug¬ 
growing at home. With an occasional day’s labor done 
by a man, a woman may raise with profit such plants as 
ginseng, golden seal, snake-root, and spigelia. Where 
a woman has some income, drug-growing on a small 
plot may augment it. 

Poultry-keeping is an industry in which many women 
have excelled. There is a demand everywhere for eggs 
and chickens. The technique of breeding chickens may 
be acquired from the numerous text-books and journals 
on the market, and the extension departments of agri¬ 
cultural colleges are ready at all times to give help. 

In most home occupations a mother may have the 
help of her children, who will learn much from experi¬ 
ence. Then, mother and children working together will 
have a community of interest that unhappily does not 
exist in all families. The children are proud of being 
able to help mother make the living by assuming some 
of the lighter tasks outside of school hours. They have 
the advantage of a mother’s personal care, supervision, 
and companionship, and she is spared that painful 
anxiety with which so many mothers are tormented 
when they have to be away from home all day. 

Wherever a woman decides to cast her lot when she 
faces the necessity of earning for herself and dependent 

183 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


children, she will not find the battle so difficult by 
half if before her marriage she had some experience 
at bread-winning. A teacher with a life certificate 
nearly always can obtain a school. One who has had 
book-keeping or stenographic experience may find it 
expedient to return to business college for a few weeks’ 
coaching before she seeks a position. Whatever a 
woman has done successfully at one stage of her career 
she can do again, and probably do it better in the light 
of larger wisdom and with the advantage of maturity. 

For this reason it is an excellent insurance against 
the blows of outrageous fortune if, before marrying, a 
woman will spend at least two years in business or in 
one of the professions, whatever may be her future 
prospects or material circumstance. By expert knowl¬ 
edge and experience she is fortified against the future, 
which may hold for her any number of misfortunes, 
widowhood, desertion, or an invalided husband. In 
any one of such eventualities, she need not despair if 
once in her life she has mastered a business, a profes¬ 
sion, or a trade. 

Women left with dependent children are growing 
increasingly resourceful in the earning of good in¬ 
comes. They are blazing new trails in pursuit of the 
almighty dollar. Many a woman by her courage, her 
initiative, and her clever management has developed 
unsuspected powers within herself, and in many 

184 


ALL THE COMFORTS OF HOME IN ONE ROOM 


instances actually has created a market for her product. 
On the ashes of despair she has built, to the admiration 
and wonder of those about her, a happy and trium¬ 
phant career. 


ALL THE COMFORTS OF HOME IN ONE ROOM 

Her name is legion—the girl who establishes her 
home and her castle within the confines of one room. 

For a man to live in one room is a comparatively 
simple matter. For a woman it is nothing short of an 
achievement. A woman living in one room often car¬ 
ries on a number of intimate activities that a man 
never would attempt in such limited quarters. Thrifty 
and resourceful creature that she is, she may prepare 
her own breakfast in her room and, it may be, her 
dinner as well. She often makes her simpler garments 
there and, if she has the energy and the talent, her own 
dresses and hats. Of course, she presses some of her 
clothing and she may wash out her silk stockings and 
silk lingerie. 

If, as is so often the case, she has no other place 
to receive a friend or a caller, she must so arrange 
her own room that it will not suggest that it is also 
her sleeping apartment and the place where she accom¬ 
plishes her toilet once or twice every day. 

Fortunate is the renter who secures a room with a 
very large closet in which she may place not only her 

185 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


trunk, if there is no other storage space for it, her 
ironing-board, a clothes-hamper, or bag for soiled 
linens, but a small dressing-table as well. If she hangs 
an electric light over this dressing-table, the closet may 
serve as a dressing-room except in the summer months, 
when, of necessity, she will have to accomplish her 
dressing out in the airier space of the room. 

But, inasmuch as such commodious closets are rare 
luxuries in the majority of residences or rooming- 
houses, and the dressing-table must be kept out in the 
room, its true office may be obscured on occasions by 
removing the articles of the toilet and stowing them 
away in a drawer. With the white linen or chintz 
cover replaced by one of darker hue, and a photograph, 
a book or two, or an ornament, the dressing-table is 
transformed speedily and has something of the appear¬ 
ance of a console. 

The woman of ample income may find a room with a 
sleeping-porch attached, particularly in the southern 
states. Deprived of that luxury and comfort, and 
limited to one room, she usually prefers a couch to a 
full-sized or a single bed. A very comfortable bed 
may be made up on a couch with an attractive cover 
to be thrown over it. Where space is not too much 
limited, a few bright-covered pillows enhance the effect. 

A similar cover of smaller size may be thrown over a 
trunk if it must be kept in the room. Sometimes this 

186 


ALL THE COMFORTS OF HOME IN ONE ROOM 


trunk in the room is an essential, being used to hold 
the winter’s supply of clothing in summer and summer 
clothing in the winter-time. 

The novice in business whose wage is barely sufficient 
for her subsistence may find it expedient to prepare the 
greater number of her meals in her room. A small table 
with a lower shelf will serve a double purpose for her. 
On the lower shelf she may keep her cooking utensils, 
a chafing-dish, an electric toaster, and a grill, together 
with a few staple groceries, such as sugar and salt, 
and a few cans of soup and vegetables. Using one 
end of the top of the table for the grill or the chafing- 
dish, she may spread a white cloth on the other, where 
she may eat her breakfast or dine in simple solitude. 
During the winter months in a cold section of the coun¬ 
try, the outside of the window-sill may be used for a 
refrigerator, where a bottle of milk, a few eggs, a bit 
of fruit, and a small quantity of butter may be kept. 
Needless to say, the girl who prepares her breakfast 
in her room will not cook food which is odoriferous. 
In fact, all frying is out of the question. Her egg, if 
she takes one, must be poached or soft-boiled. Break¬ 
fast food does not create any odor and coffee seldom 
is obnoxious. Many persons prefer the dry varieties 
of breakfast food anyway, and they are easily handled 

at any time. If the space is very limited a shelf, nailed 

187 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 

to the window-sill, may be used instead of the table. 
In either case all evidences of cooking or eating may be 
concealed successfully by a small screen. 

The delicatessen stores in many cities are a great 
boon to the thrifty worker. She may stop at one of 
them en route to her home and purchase a piece of meat 
and a couple of vegetables. If the store is near her 
rooming-place, they may be kept hot until she can enjoy 
them, or, if not, they may be heated quickly on the 
grill or in the chafing-dish. 

A sewing-machine with a drop-head may be made 
into a table, bearing slight evidence of its utilitarian 
character. With perhaps an attractive lamp-shade, a 
folding waste-basket, and a few substantial ornaments 
that are easily transported, a few suitable pictures, and 
the current books, employed women all over the country 
are able to arrange charming rooms. 

In some lodging-houses young women may receive 
men friends in their rooms if the door into the corridor 
is left open. In other houses a reception-room is pro¬ 
vided, the character of the accommodations depending 
largely upon the rent. Studio clubs in the larger cities 
usually have spacious parlors for the girls who live in 
them. Some of them have what are called “ beau 
parlors ” directly off the reception-rooms, in which a 
girl may enjoy all the privacy of her own home. 

Each young woman, according to her means and her 

188 


ALL THE COMFORTS OF HOME IN ONE ROOM 


locality, must work out her own living problem. This 
much may be said for her encouragement. If she has a 
keen sense of the rights of others, and if she is careful 
to abide by all the proprieties, she will find among most 
persons with whom she deals a readiness to help her, so 
that the problem will not be so very great after all. 





CHAPTER VIII 


PUNCTUALITY IS IMPORTANT 
SELF-IMPROVEMENT IN SPARE TIME 
OPPORTUNITIES: HOW THEY ARE MADE 
FRIENDLINESS PAYS DIVIDENDS 
HOW TO TAKE DISCIPLINE 
IF YOU SHOULD LOSE YOUR JOB 




s 












CHAPTER VIII 


PUNCTUALITY IS IMPORTANT 

If, as Louis XVIII said, “ punctuality is the polite¬ 
ness of kings,” so it is the soul of business. No 
business, in fact, can function successfully where punc¬ 
tuality is not the rule, and no woman in business can 
succeed if she does not make it the habit of her life 
to be on time. 

A writer has said that a bed is a bundle of paradoxes, 
that we go to it at night with reluctance and that we 
leave it in the morning with regret. Arising on time 
in the morning when skies are gray and the house is 
cold, is no easy feat for the majority of women, and 
the effort to reach the office, the store, or the factory 
promptly involves no little strain. One woman may 
have to overcome physical lethargy, due to tempera¬ 
ment. Another, who perhaps has been working beyond 
her strength, may have to rise in spite of languor 
or fatigue. 

But, whatever her difficulty, few employers will 
excuse tardiness, and where there are large groups of 
employed women in a store or office, it cannot be 

condoned. The rule must be observed for the sake of 

193 


13 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


order. If the manager were to excuse tardiness in one 
girl, he could not with impunity enforce a rigid rule 
on others. 

Planning ahead easily obviates a good deal of unneces¬ 
sary tardiness in the morning. If an employed woman 
finds early rising a cross to her, she should make every 
possible preparation the night before. Many minutes 
could be saved from the morning rush if her shoes were 
polished and cleaned at night, if her fresh lingerie were 
laid out, also her stockings, handkerchiefs, gloves, and 
veil. Her dress and her cloak should be brushed at 
night and if, by any chance, her frock for the next 
morning needs pressing, that is a task that never should 
be postponed until the morning hours. Manicuring is 
another detail of her toilet which should receive atten¬ 
tion at night. Seldom is there time in the morning 
to file and to polish, and finger-nails must be immacu¬ 
late. Nothing could be more disenchanting than seeing a 
young woman completing her toilet on the street-car 
or the elevated, as a few misguided young women do. 

Dispatching work on time is another prime virtue. In 
every office there are workers who, despite interruptions 
and unforeseen disturbances and distractions, deliver 
their work on the minute. Only the most extraordinary 
circumstance will delay them. In the same office will 
be found those who just as regularly use up their 
margin of time dawdling or chatting, often causing 

194 


PUNCTUALITY IS IMPORTANT 


the greatest inconvenience to others who are conscien¬ 
tious in keeping to the schedule. 

Which of these workers is likely to be promoted and 
to receive the bigger raise? 

Workers who habitually fall behind cannot experi¬ 
ence that sense of satisfaction which comes to one whose 
work is completed promptly with no tasks left over for 
the following day. Plans are executed more readily 
while they are fresh in the mind. A letter is answered 
in a better spirit on the day of its arrival, unless the 
nature of the reply involves time for investigation or 
research. To leave a clean desk at closing time secures 
to a conscientious worker a happier and more carefree 
evening than if tasks, letters, inquiries, had been left 
untouched. It is harder to perform a task that has 
been postponed, by half, than if it had been executed 
promptly, and a fresh start in the morning facilitates 
matters for the whole day. 

All appointments should be kept to the minute. Men 
and women, alike, prefer to transact business with one 
who is punctual. A wait of even five or ten minutes 
is exasperating to a busy person or when “ time means 
money.” Punctual persons quickly become disgusted 
with laggards and turn elsewhere to find those with 
whom they can deal with the minimum of irritation 
and delay. 

Punctuality always is suggestive of dependability. 

195 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


A woman who arrives on time in the morning, and who 
does not filch from the noon-hour, and who keeps up 
her work, will be trusted with weightier matters. She 
is more likely to have new responsibilities added to her 
office, or to be promoted, than a cleverer woman who 
falls behind the schedule and permits her work to lag. 

Punctuality in paying bills stimulates credit. If 
possible, all outstanding bills should be paid by the 
fifth of the month, and not later than the tenth. The 
woman who meets all of her business obligations of 
whatever nature without delay commands respect for 
her business acumen and manifest self-control. 

Now—is the accepted time in business. She who 
does not understand the importance of punctuality in 
business is an even greater nuisance than the woman 
in society who habitually delays every dinner and 
luncheon to which she is asked. 

SELF-IMPROVEMENT IN SPARE TIME 

“ Where there is one woman who comes to us for 
books from which she can learn more about her work, 
there are twenty men,” said a librarian. “ In this day of 
the rapid advancement of women in business and the 
professions, it is strange that a greater number of 
women workers do not go in for self-improvement.” 

That more men than women are taking their occu¬ 
pations seriously is due to the fact that most single 

196 


SELF-IMPROVEMENT IN SPARE TIME 


women in business hope to marry—they do not expect 
to remain indefinitely in the business world. They 
have obtained positions in stores, factories, schools, 
offices, and telephone exchanges because meanwhile 
they have had to become self-supporting or because they 
have wanted more money to spend. 

With the dawn of every new year, however, an 
increasing number of women discover the value of a 
steady effort for self-improvement. And not a little 
of this impetus to excel in business is coming through 
the associations employed women have in business and 
professional women’s clubs. In fact, all associations 
and organizations of self-supporting women are stress¬ 
ing the fact that greater efficiency means an increased 
earning capacity, a more assured situation, and a 
greater personal freedom and scope in work. 

A humble beginning is no obstacle to a successful 
career. Some of the outstanding successes made by 
women who started at the bottom of the ladder with¬ 
out money and without influence read like romance. 
All of them have made their ascent through sheer labor. 
Some of them have carried special courses of study 
with their regular work; and if you have an oppor¬ 
tunity to learn the history of their struggles, you will 
discover that they have utilized consistently every 
opportunity and that they have made it a rule of their 
working lives to turn their spare moments and leisure 
hours to good account. 


197 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


Let us take the case of stenographers and typists, of 
whom there are more than a half-million in the United 
States. By no means all of the young women who 
obtain certificates from business colleges are equipped 
with adequate vocabularies. Not all of them are expert 
spellers and skilled in punctuation. Yet, how many 
of them continue their studies after they take positions? 
How many of them take speed tests? How many of 
them study the fine points of paragraphing and punc¬ 
tuation? How many read their employers’ trade jour¬ 
nals when they have the opportunity ? 

One young girl I have known carried lists of words 
with her on the street-car, studying as she travelled to 
and from her employer’s office to perfect herself in 
spelling. Whenever she saw a new word> she copied 
it and learned it. Its meaning and the spelling of it 
were hers then for all time. Another clever girl was 
not content to master grammar—she studied rhetoric, 
too. If her employer dictated to her an awkward sen¬ 
tence, she could reconstruct it without his noticing that 
she had changed it. An ambitious girl with a vision 
will make a special study of the nomenclature of the 
business in which she is engaged. She will familiarize 
herself with every technical term that is used in it, and 
she will avoid that most awkward of all shortcomings— 
asking her employer while he is dictating, “ How, please, 
do you spell that ? ” 


198 


SELF-IMPROVEMENT IN SPARE TIME 


The saleswoman in her novitiate may look with long¬ 
ing eyes upon the smart attire of the buyer in her 
department. There are moments, perhaps, when she 
envies the buyer’s position of authority, when she won¬ 
ders when she, too, may be earning so large a salary, 
when she may be sent on buying trips to New York, 
even to Paris. Yet, when a customer enters a store 
where this young woman stands behind the counter, 
she allows her mood to govern her. If she is in a good 
humor, she gives willing service. If, on the other 
hand, she Is listless the customer may wait on herself. 
She forgets, unfortunately, that the buyer whom she 
envies was a painstaking and enthusiastic saleswoman 
under all circumstances for a number of years before 
her promotion. She has been told that she must study 
her stock, but then stock is such an “ awful bore.” 
She might be learning a good many things about mer¬ 
chandising, too, if she could forget about the dance last 
night and the party scheduled for tomorrow. 

If an employed woman will make a budget of her 
time, setting aside one half-hour or one hour each day 
that shall be sacred to the task of self-improvement, or, 
if she prefers to concentrate her effort, two or three 
evenings a week, she will make appreciable progress. 
Many a worker by special study of her occupation and 
its demands has mastered it and has bridged the chasm 
between a mere living and an excellent income. 

199 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


In order to do this it is necessary to take into account 
the time necessary for dressing, for meals, for outdoor 
exercise, and travel to and from work. If the worker 
makes two trips a day in a subway or commutes between 
two points, the time spent in transit may be used for 
study. A great deal may be accomplished, likewise, 
if the worker travels much on trains. Utilizing spare 
moments is a matter of will-power and desire. 

When a worker exclaims, “ I never have a minute 
for anything—I just can’t find time to study and read,” 
she either does not know how to set aside a margin for 
self-improvement or she does not want to acquire a 
larger knowledge as much as she thinks she does. 

Has she never thought of using the ten or fifteen 
minutes at noontime usually given to window-shopping ? 
Or, perhaps, she is accustomed to gossiping with her 
colaborers or, if she is back in the office before the 
hour strikes, she may gaze idly out of the window. 

At home in the evening she putters around and 
accomplishes nothing of permanent value. She visits 
with the family, or spends the time in meaningless, if 
pleasant, chatter, and hours without number are lost in 
doing inconsequential things. 

This woman usually finds leisure for social pleas¬ 
ures, for the theater, the dance, a bridge game, or a 

club or two. She finds time for them because she is 

200 


SELF-IMPROVEMENT IN SPARE TIME 


genuinely interested in them. She would find time for 
study, likewise, if she were equally interested in that. 

Means to self-improvement abound for men and 
women of all classes in this land of ours. Night-schools 
are conducted in most cities. There are many excellent 
correspondence courses to be had for nominal sums. 
Text-books are accessible on every conceivable subject. 
If an employed woman cannot afford to buy such books 
as she needs for her further education, she may obtain 
them through a public library. If she lives in a small 
town without its own library, she may secure the loan 
of such volumes as she needs by means of correspond¬ 
ence with the nearest city library. A number of states 
have library commissions furnishing books to all coun¬ 
ties. In this service of education, even the blind are 
provided for. 

Although it is a rather unusual case, the story of 
how a house-servant employed in a small town where 
lines of caste are sharply drawn, by persistent effort 
and study and the utilization of every facility available 
to her, became a teacher of a model school in her county 
and the idol of the country-side, may serve as an illus¬ 
tration of what a brave and enterprising woman can do. 

A young woman had done housework for several 
years before her marriage. When her husband died, 
leaving her with two small children, she placed them 
with a relative in the village and obtained a situation 

201 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


as general houseworker until she could decide upon 
more remunerative work. 

Always she had wanted to be a teacher. So, refusing 
to be daunted by class prejudice, by an unfinished high- 
school course, and by lack of money, she purchased 
the necessary books and, with a senior in the 
local high school to coach her, prepared to take 
the examinations. 

After patient effort which claimed all of her leisure 
hours, she secured a diploma. During the summer, she 
took the shortest possible normal course. In the fall 
she applied for a school. Her assignment was a school 
in the country, where gradually she won a place for 
herself in the hearts of the parents as well as 
the children. 

It so happened that she was teaching in a county 
remarkable for its number of model schools. Her 
school must be brought up to the model standard. So, 
she talked the matter over with the county superintend¬ 
ent, who informed her that no money for that purpose 
was available. 

This young woman would have the model school, 
anyway, if she herself had to raise the funds necessary 
to purchase the equipment. Entertainments were given 
with the assistance of the pupils. There were money¬ 
making enterprises of all sorts, enterprises into which 

the school children entered with zest. Finally, just one 

202 


SELF-IMPROVEMENT IN SPARE TIME 


of the prescribed improvements remained to be added. 
It was a walk from the gate to the schoolroom door. 
The teacher, herself, climbed down into an abandoned 
well, took the bricks out of it, and with the help of the 
larger boys built a smooth brick walk. 

In the meantime, she had not been neglecting her 
own children. In her little ramshackle car she drove 
into town after the session was over to spend the night 
with them and to prepare her lessons for the follow¬ 
ing day. 

If a woman with children to care for and support 
is able to rise from the situation of a domestic to that 
of a teacher, a guide and molder of young thought, 
certainly a woman already launched safely in business, 
and having no dependents, might manage a few hours 
weekly, if not a regular daily period, for study 
and self-improvement. 

By a wise use of leisure and by constant application 
many a cash-girl has secured promotion to the work 
of a saleswoman, many a cashier has been made book¬ 
keeper, and many a $2o-a-week stenographer has fitted 
herself to become an expert secretary. In fact, there 
is no excuse for any one in this age to remain ignorant 
with the means of education at hand. No one is so poor 
or so remote that she cannot lay hold on that which will 
enrich her mind, broaden her knowledge, and increase 
her efficiency. 


203 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WOULD 


Many a woman in business who has lacked both social 
and educational advantages wishes that she might be 
able to discuss freely and easily the topics of the day. 
She wishes that she knew more about art, music, and 
literature, and of the affairs of the world in general. 
She cannot compete with other women who are better 
informed and more cultivated than herself. 

Whether or not she is going to meet this competition 
is something she alone can decide. Is she going to 
continue to live easily, or will she sacrifice some of her 
pleasures and recreations to observation and study? 

The problem of the study hour is simple enough for 
the woman who lives alone. If, however, she is one 
of a large family of social inclinations, she may have 
to appeal to the head of the house to arrange a quiet 
hour for her. Other members of the family must 
respect her right to a quiet period for concentration. 

Human beings were made to grow, not for a mere 
eighteen or twenty years, but throughout a lifetime. 
Growth, in fact, is one explanation of our being. 

“ What a well-rounded character she has, what a 
broad, comprehending mind! ” you say of a woman 
who is remarkable for her attainments. That is 
because she always has been in the process of growing. 
When experience tried to teach her a lesson, it found 
her in a responsive mood. When the world was ready 
to reveal one of its secrets to her, she gave the world 

204 


SELF-IMPROVEMENT IN SPARE TIME 


an eager ear. When fate dealt her a misfortune, she 
learned something from that, if it were only to endure. 
All through life she is storing up knowledge. Every¬ 
thing she encounters, everything she experiences, has a 
lesson in it for her. She listens to every man and 
woman, knowing that the humblest has his or her 
meed of wisdom. She has an attitude of mind similar 
to that of a newspaper man, mature in experience, who 
said one day to a group of fellow-craftsmen: 

“ Every man has a story in him if you know how to 
get it. It matters not who he is or what he is, he can 
tell you something that you don’t know and that will 
be of interest to the world.” 

Among men and women of the better class there is 
not so much difference in mental capacity as there is 
in attitude of mind. One is satisfied with a little 
knowledge, just enough to get along. Another does not 
permit a day, a week, a month, to pass by without 
learning something new. 

Any ambitious woman might undertake a little sur¬ 
vey for her own enlightenment and inspiration. Let 
her, for instance, make a mental inventory of all of 
her friends and associates. Then, let her determine 
how many of them have grown appreciably in the last 
ten years. How many of them have expanded in mind 

and in character? How many of them would she call 

205 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


big men and women? Then, after she has taken stock 
of her friends, she might take stock of herself. 

The habit of learning a little all of the time about 
one’s work, about the world and the people in it, about 
human nature, does more than promote ambition and 
fatten a pay envelope—it makes life much more inter¬ 
esting and adds much to its variety and its charm. 

opportunities: how they are made 

In his famous poem, “ Opportunity,” John J. Ingalls 
tells us that opportunity knocks but once at every door. 
Fatalistic in its suggestion, in neither word nor phrase 
may the reader find even a vague promise that oppor¬ 
tunity ever pays a return visit. Neither does it indicate 
that men and women, instead of watching and waiting 
indefinitely for opportunity’s coming, might invoke it 
of their own will. 

It is a truism in business that the ambitious and the 
enterprising do more than open the door to oppor¬ 
tunity. They actually attract it. They even force 
it, if need be. 

The illusive quality of opportunity is generally exag¬ 
gerated by those who want to make of it an excuse. It 
is to be found in every business establishment by those 
who are willing to serve in more than one capacity, 

who readily and cheerfully perform any task assigned 

206 


OPPORTUNITIES: HOW THEY ARE MADE 

to them, who step into any place that may be vacant, and 
who are always looking about to see what their hands 
or brains may find to do. 

For purposes of illustration, let us take the news¬ 
paper, not the metropolitan daily, but the small city or 
town paper which offers a wide range of opportunity 
to the woman who is seeking a variety of experience 
and who is willing to work. Never will she find con¬ 
tentment in covering only her news run. She will create 
freak or feature stories, submitting her ideas, of course, 
to the editor. If, for instance, she is writing society, 
she will cherish an ambition to try her hand at politics. 
She will refuse no assignment, from a women’s club con¬ 
vention to a murder. If the music or dramatic critic 
should be absent, she may essay his task. She will 
always be ready to edit copy, to write headlines, to clip 
material, or to undertake any one of a dozen tasks that 
may fall in her way. If she is in charge of a depart¬ 
ment of the paper, she will seek constantly to introduce 
new ideas, and she will search eternally for fresh mate¬ 
rial. It will be her constant effort to study all forms 
of news writing, and it may sometimes happen that she 
finds an opportunity to prepare advertising copy. 

The number of women who, after having had a 
general reporting and news-handling experience, buy 
small town papers and operate them successfully is in¬ 
creasing, their ownership and their editorship conferring 

207 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


upon them the position of leaders in their communities. 
And it is an excellent business for a woman who has 
both the necessary mental stamina and physical strength. 

Now, the same purpose and principle apply to many 
other lines of business, it may be, however, in a more 
limited way. As most large business enterprises are 
divided into departments and each department is divided 
into several phases of work, the woman who is ready to 
step from one department to another at an hour’s, or, it 
may be, a moment’s notice, is one who knows the true 
meaning of opportunity. 

If, for instance, she has been employed steadily in 
the handling of customers’ statements in a bank, she will 
try to fit herself to help in one or more of the other 
departments. She knows that the woman who can fill 
only one place works at a disadvantage to herself, and, 
at times, at a loss to her employer. 

It may be that she has employment with a book¬ 
seller, the stationery department being her particular 
care. At a rush hour in a small store, she should be 
able to transfer her attention to the book department, 
where she should acquaint herself with the titles of the 
best sellers as well as standard stock. The more she 
learns about books and the sale of them while yet in 
charge of letter-paper, novelties, and cards, the more 
valuable she will be to her employer and the better 

her prospect of promotion. 

208 


OPPORTUNITIES: HOW THEY ARE MADE 


Perhaps an employed woman’s activities in the 
department store have been limited to the sale of 
ribbons, or to veils and neckware. Had she ever 
thought about becoming acquainted with the silk stock 
at the next counter, or could she sell linens with under¬ 
standing if the need should occur? 

Or, in the event that her energies are employed by 
the village emporium, could she trim the windows if 
the head of the dress-goods department, who does 
window-decorating as a side-line, were absent for a 
week or two? 

For two years a young woman who worked as stenog¬ 
rapher for a man whose business it was to handle 
contracts, copy, and cuts for an advertising agency, 
made a practice of offering her assistance just as soon 
as she had her letters and copy work out of the way. 
She would help this man to keep his records, to make 
advertising layouts and schedules, and she often placed 
orders for cuts. It became her habit to scrutinize every 
piece of copy for errors, and when the chief was busy 
she checked over all contracts to avoid omission in the 
placing of advertisements. There was not a feature of 
his task that she overlooked. 

Now, none of this additional work had been assigned 
her when she found employment in the office—she had 
taken it on of her own accord. Seeing how intelligent 
was her interest in the business, how adaptable and how 
14 209 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


ready she was to help a superior, when vacation time 
arrived the president of the company asked her if she 
were willing to take over her chief’s work for two or 
three weeks. 

This was precisely the opportunity for which she had 
been waiting, or rather, the one she had created for 
herself. She assumed full charge of his duties and she 
managed his work with so much dispatch, so much 
accuracy, and such satisfaction to the company, that 
when a few months later it was decided to offer the 
chief a promotion, his stenographer was selected to 
fill his place. 

If she had not sought and found an opportunity to 
demonstrate her ability to do a man’s work, no member 
of the firm, probably, would have suspected her poten¬ 
tial ability. 

The stock-girl in a mercantile establishment who 
aspires to the situation of saleswoman will hasten the 
day of her opportunity to secure a salesbook by mani¬ 
festing the keenest interest in the work assigned to her, 
and a willingness to perform extra tasks. 

So soon as she is promoted to the position of sales¬ 
woman, she will make a serious study of fabrics and 
workmanship. Nor will she be content with first-hand 
observation and what she may learn in the department 
by word of mouth. She will secure a good text-book 
on that subject and she will acquaint herself with such 

210 


OPPORTUNITIES: HOW THEY ARE MADE 

practical and interesting knowledge as where a fabric 
was made, what raw materials have been used in its 
manufacture, the processes it underwent in course of 
production, and its probable wearing qualities. It will 
not be long before so alert and ambitious a woman 
will begin really to know fabrics, and she will take but 
one glance at a finished garment to name the house that 
sponsors it. Moreover, she will be able to estimate the 
price paid for it in the wholesale market and also that 
at which it will be offered to the retail trade. Needless 
to say, these are only a few of the steps to be taken 
by the woman who is ambitious to become a buyer, 
the goal of many who make a business of hand¬ 
ling merchandise. 

The foregoing illustrations, drawn from actual ex¬ 
perience and achievement, are merely suggestive of what 

r 

may be accomplished by the woman who believes 
in opportunity. 

It is a rare day in the calendar of business that 
does not bring with it some kind of opportunity, no 
matter how small it may be. Every task is an oppor¬ 
tunity, every new responsibility. Every customer or 
client is an opportunity, every business transaction. 

While the intent to watch for opportunities and the 
ability to seize them is an important human faculty, 
a still more important one is that of creating them—a 
faculty every woman of ambition may cultivate at will. 

211 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


FRIENDLINESS PAYS DIVIDENDS 

What value do you place upon friendship? 

Does it mean enough to you as a personal and busi¬ 
ness asset to inspire you to make a definite effort to 
cultivate friends? 

The number of men and women who imagine that 
they can succeed without the good will of their asso¬ 
ciates is steadily decreasing. Those who live in the 
world, and are of it, are realizing more and more that 
they need all the friends they can make and all the 
good will they can win. 

Most of us give entirely too little thought to the 
matter of making friends. When I write these words, 
I do not mean that we should start out with the idea 
of creating friendships for our own selfish purposes. A 
woman who gets the idea of fostering friendships with 
desirable persons with whom she comes into contact 
for her own ends and uses soon will find that she has 
no friends. Friendliness must be reciprocal if it is to 
last. In friendship we cannot repeal the law of com¬ 
pensation. It is a partnership that must work 
both ways. 

No person is too poor or too obscure to be consid¬ 
ered in the distribution of good will. A man who has 
built a large clothing business by friendliness as well as 
by wise investment and careful management, accords the 
most courteous treatment to all customers, actual or 

212 


FRIENDLINESS PAYS DIVIDENDS 


prospective, and to all men and boys who apply to him 
for work or who come into contact with him in a busi¬ 
ness way. Even though he must tell an office boy or a 
janitor that he has no work for him, he is careful to dis¬ 
miss that boy or that man in as happy a frame of mind 
as possible. The result is that the humblest person 
under those conditions is likely to become a customer. 
More than one saleswoman in the big shops and 
department stores is laying the foundation for big suc¬ 
cess in the future by her impartial treatment of all 
comers, the rich and the poor alike. 

The wheel of fortune turns most disconcertingly. 
The poor of today may be the wealthy of to¬ 
morrow ; the struggling, the successful; and the obscure, 
the prominent. 

Men and women are particularly susceptible to kindly 
treatment and friendly advances when they are passing 
through a period of self-denial. A woman in business 
who judges men and women by their outward appear¬ 
ance and treats them accordingly is not only short¬ 
sighted from a dollar and cents standpoint—she has 
an uneducated heart. 

Have you ever noticed that it is the woman who pos¬ 
sesses a faculty for making friends with all sorts and 
conditions of people who is sought out by big business 
institutions and is entrusted with an important place? 
She may have known nothing of the detail of the busi- 

213 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


ness. But she was sought for her personal qualifica¬ 
tions rather than technical knowledge: the latter is some¬ 
thing she will acquire with time. A fine, rich personal¬ 
ity draws friends and customers, and it is worth real 
money to a firm. A woman so sought in business is not 
unlike her sister in society who, although she lives in a 
little house and has only two or three gowns and no 
money for formal entertaining, is asked everywhere 
because she makes others happy and helps to make every 
affair in which she participates a genuine social success. 

Have you ever made a study of those persons who 
gather friends around them wherever they go? 

It is worth while to observe that they nearly always 
wear a happy expression, the outward sign of their 
goodness of heart. When they shake hands it is with 
a hearty handclasp. They do not extend to you a cold, 
clammy, inert palm. There is a ring of sincerity in their 
cordial words of greeting and they seem to be sur¬ 
rounded, as it were, with an aura of amity. The veriest 
stranger senses this instantly, and all those persons 
who are met thus are warmed and comforted, and even 
electrified, by the presence of a truly friendly soul. 

Outwardly, certain men and women appear to be con¬ 
trolled only by motives of self-interest. Even these 
latter persons, popularly spoken of as icebergs and 
human glaciers, may be won. Sentiment is a powerful 
influence in the lives of all human beings. Many a 

214 


FRIENDLINESS PAYS DIVIDENDS 


“ hard-boiled ” individual who would cut another man’s 
throat in a business deal, as the saying goes, may con¬ 
ceal an impressionable nature under his cold and for¬ 
bidding exterior. When such a man is won to friendli¬ 
ness, he often makes the most loyal of supporters. 

In every office there are one or two persons with 
whom all comers want to deal. In every store there are 
certain salesmen and saleswomen from whom customers 
want to buy. Where other salesfolk will be idle their 
customers will tell the floor manager, “ I am wait¬ 
ing for Miss Smith to serve me.” There is no mystery 
about it. The friendly quality of Miss Smith’s service 
creates a steady demand for it. This friendly and 
efficient service accounts for the custom of a store’s, 
upon acquiring Miss Smith’s services, sending out 
letters to her patrons, announcing that fact over 
her name. 

Don’t wait until you have done something big before 
you begin to make friends. Don’t put that off until 
you may become prosperous and prominent. As a 
matter of fact, the way of fine friendliness is one of 
the direct routes to success and prosperity. Seize every 
opportunity that comes to you in the course of a work¬ 
ing day to smile, to say a pleasant word, to render a 
bit of helpful service, to express personal appreciation, 
to radiate the spirit of love in the world. 

Every friend you make is a silent partner in your 

215 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


business. You never know when a good friend is going 
to say the word for you, make the move for you, that 
will put you directly in the way of realizing your most 
cherished desire and ambition in life. 

HOW TO TAKE DISCIPLINE 

Woman is a sensitive creature, and it is hard for her 
to take censure or criticism without making a personal 
matter of it. 

From the beginning of time wives have wept when 
their husbands were cross with them or when their 
men reproached them for real or imaginary mistakes. 

But, since women have gone into business, where 
they have worked under the supervision and direction 
of men, they have been compelled to forget their tender 
feelings. They have schooled themselves in the art of 
leaving their feelings behind them as they leave their 
homes in the morning, for a sensitive spirit is a handi¬ 
cap and, it may be, a burden to a woman in the course 
of her working-day. 

It is a rare employer who deliberately offends his 
worker’s sensibilities, particularly if the worker happens 
to be a woman. What he wants is efficient service, and 
what he demands is “ results.” Perhaps he is a very 
energetic man, in which event he is likely to be impatient. 
If his orders are not carried out with dispatch, or if 
the results he has asked for have not been achieved, 

216 


HOW TO TAKE DISCIPLINE 


lie may lose his temper and express himself with a 
vigor that sometimes is brutal. A poor excuse only 
feeds the flame of his displeasure and he may seek 
relief for his sense of irritation in violence of speech. 
Then, like most persons of his kind, he will forget 
promptly about the incident while the unhappy woman 
who has been the object of his displeasure suffers keenly 
from outraged pride. 

Indulging in a gust of temper is a poor way to 
administer discipline. It is rather a confession of weak¬ 
ness on the part of an executive, who if he expects to 
govern his subordinates should learn first to govern 
himself. A sluggish or careless worker often is a real 
problem, one who shows an inclination to give only 
about forty or fifty per cent, of her energy to the task 
in hand. A sharp word to her from an employer may 
arouse her to a realization of her duty as no kindly and 
considerate treatment would. The result may be not 
only increased effort on her part but, at some future 
time, actual profit to herself. 

It is a wise woman who lets bygones be bygones and 
who forgets an unpleasant incident as quickly as pos¬ 
sible. She will not air her sense of injury among other 
employees, nor will she go about with a sullen face. 

It happens occasionally that a new worker will be 
flattered by her employer, who takes a fancy to her, and 
that she will be promoted over the heads of older 

217 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


workers. Immediately, she will find herself the object 
of jealous resentment, the target of office cliques. In 
that situation she should take the greatest care to be 
unobtrusive and to keep herself absolutely free from 
office politics. 

When a woman is promoted with unusual rapidity 
because her employer has overestimated her ability 
and training, she is likely to commit a serious error, 
however she may strive to avoid mistakes. Her em¬ 
ployer is all the readier to be irritated if he suspects 
that he has made an error in judgment which he does 
not quite know how to rectify. If she realizes fully 
that she is not able to measure up to the requirements 
of her position, and if she feels that she cannot over¬ 
come the obstacles that confront her speedily, she would 
better take the matter up with her employer frankly 
and suggest that he place her in a situation which she 
can fill to his satisfaction. 

“ Forgive and forget ” is a first-class motto for every 
woman who works under a superior. Any one of us 
may yield to impulse and say things that we later regret. 
Then, kind hearts often belong to those who have quick 
tempers. A word of reproof, unless it be rudely or 
harshly uttered, should be taken as a part of the busi¬ 
ness routine. Many a testy employer will go far out of 
his way to help an employee when she is ill or in trouble, 
or needing his sympathy or advice. 

218 


IF YOU SHOULD LOSE YOUR JOB 


Discipline, when it is administered in a right and 
fair spirit, should arouse a woman worker to put forth 
her best effort—she should not permit it to discourage 
her or to make her disgruntled. 

Emerson once said pithily that “ Good is a good 
doctor, but Bad is sometimes better.” If we travel an 
easy and undisciplined way for a long time, we are so 
likely, in our human capacity, to acquire a false sense 
of security. 


IF YOU SHOULD LOSE YOUR JOB 

What would you do if you lost your job? 

Misfortune may come to any employed woman at 
some time in her career. It may be through some 
fault or mistake of her own that she loses an excellent 
position. It may be by reason of a change in the 
office personnel, because of a reduction in forces during 
a wave of economy or a reorganization, or it may 
happen that she becomes the victim of other circum¬ 
stances over which she has no control. 

But, whatever the cause, it is well for any and every 
woman employed in industry to give a little thought as 
to what she would do if the “ blue envelope ” should be 
addressed to her. The best way to handle any situation 
is to be ready for it in advance. If a worker is dis¬ 
missed, or finds it expedient to leave her position sud¬ 
denly, and she has only a small money reserve, she will 

219 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


have to act quickly. If she has done a little thinking 
and planning ahead in the event of such an emergency, 
she will not be in a panic of fear and confusion and she 
will not likely suffer a nervous collapse. 

First of all, it is a mistake to go about complaining, 
whatever may have been the causes which led to a 
loss of place. No one outside of a woman’s family or 
her circle of intimate friends is going to feel any great 
degree of distress over her situation. No course could 
be more misguided than for her to make a general bid 
for sympathy. 

All of us, at one time or another, have heard the 
woman who has just lost her position talk about how 
she told her employer a few plain truths concerning 
himself and his methods of doing business. She pro¬ 
tests that she really is indebted to him for having let 
her go. She had wanted to leave for a long time, but 
hated to make the step. He always had treated her 
unjustly, and she expends a lot of energy pitying the 
woman who may take her place. 

It may have been that her former employer was 
“ impossible,” as she has said. Also, it may have been 
that she was dismissed for incompetence or for some 
habit that was undesirable and that tended to demoral¬ 
ize the force. 

Now, if she suspects that the fault has been hers, she 
does the clever thing when she decides to put away 

220 


IF YOU SHOULD LOSE YOUR JOB 


her vanity and bravely take stock of herself. If she 
has lost her position through some error of conduct or 
want of competent effort, she will be eager to avoid 
repeating her mistake in the next position to which 
she goes. For, the greater number of places in which 
she is so unfortunate as to disqualify herself, the more 
quickly will her reputation follow her and the harder 
it will be for her to get a job. 

When a woman is out of work she should not allow 
false pride to keep her from admitting that fact, for the 
more persons know that she is seeking a position, the 
greater the opportunities that may be opened up to her. 
Nor should she be reticent about applying for work. 

Let her search out every desirable prospect and 
file her application. And let her not be misled by 
glowing promises, for dependence upon a bright pros¬ 
pect may cause her to relinquish her search. The most 
brilliant prospects have been known to fade quickly, 
and the psychological effect of sudden discouragement 
is likely to be demoralizing. To one in need of work 
and a pay envelope nothing is more dangerous than the 
Micawber spirit of “ waiting for something to turn 
up.” And the job-seeker must do her own “ turning ” 
by means of a diligent and persistent search. 

After a worker has thoroughly analyzed her situa¬ 
tion, she may reach the conclusion that she has been a 
misfit, that she has not found her proper niche. If she 

221 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


sincerely believes that she has been following the 
wrong trail, it may be well for her to branch out in a 
new line of endeavor. In some other occupation she 
might achieve greater happiness as well as a larger 
success. Modern business is so complex that no kind 
of talent goes unwanted. There is a place for every 
capacity, every manifestation of skill. 

Under such condition, the loss of the former place 
may have been a blessing in disguise, giving the worker 
an opportunity to enter upon a more congenial task. 
Sometimes an interval between the loss of one place 
and entrance upon her duties is a wholesome and 
beneficial thing. 

A woman who had been an expert stenographer for 
twenty years came to me one day in a painfully nervous 
condition and after many preliminaries told me that she 
had been “ fired.” The first shock of her dismissal had 
prostrated her, and she had been confined to her bed 
and had been under the care of a physician. As she 
was living with her family and had a substantial savings 
account, I urged her to seek a new environment for a 
few weeks, to forget her troubles and have a good time. 
She was in no condition to begin work in a strange office 
and demonstrate her real ability. She accepted the 
suggestion, took a month’s rest in a near-by watering- 
place, and upon her return promptly secured an excel¬ 
lent situation which she has filled with credit to herself. 

222 


IF YOU SHOULD LOSE YOUR JOB 


In approaching a prospective employer, an easy, 
confident bearing will create a favorable impression. 
Under such circumstances it is fatal either to look or to 
act frightened. A nervous manner is a serious handi¬ 
cap, and an employer who probably has enough troubles 
of his own is not likely to be prepossessed in favor of 
a fidgety young woman, who, fearful lest she may not 
secure the position she is asking for, is on the point 
of tears. 

Needless to say, before a worker starts out in search 

0 

of a position she should send the suit or the dress she 
is wearing to be cleaned and pressed. Her shoes must 
be well shined and her gloves and veil immaculate. 
Throughout her search she must present the best pos¬ 
sible appearance and she must never let herself slump. 

As the hours during which she can claim the atten¬ 
tion of business men are limited, she may have con¬ 
siderable leisure time in which to worry about 
herself. She is fortunate if she has formed the habit 
of absorbed reading. In the moving-picture theater 
she may find a good place to forget anxieties, or she 
may seek relaxation in a game of cards. 

Keeping up a good spirit is half the battle. The 
visibly worried, fretted girl or woman does not stand 
half the chance of securing a good position that the 
cheerful one does. Job-hunting is the acid test of self- 
mastery. It is a gauge of staying power. There are 

223 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 

periods in industry when it is extremely difficult to 
secure employment even for those who have the best 
credentials and recommendations. The chief reason 
for failure in normal times and under normal conditions 
in most cases is a lack of perseverance, a fainting of 
the spirit before the demand to carry on in spite of 
obstacles and discouragements. 


CHAPTER IX 


TRAINING FOR LEADERSHIP 
CAN WOMAN DO MAN’S WORK? 
WOMEN AND BIG BUSINESS 




















CHAPTER IX 


TRAINING FOR LEADERSHIP 

Leadership by women no longer startles the world. 

Countless women are training to fill positions of 
leadership in business. They are supervisors, depart¬ 
ment heads in big business houses, and they travel as 
representatives of organizations or business enterprises. 
They are able to go into strange cities, to “ find them¬ 
selves ” quickly and to “ deliver the goods.” 

Why should not women assume leadership in busi¬ 
ness? For centuries they have been assuming it in 
their own homes. 

The man who believes firmly that he is the head of 
his house seldom suspects that his wife is the real 
“ boss.” She manages him and everything about the 
establishment so skilfully that he never guesses that he 
is pliable human material in her hands. Women have 
been willing enough that men should hold the title so 
long as they remained the real moving forces in 
their homes. 

If a woman aspires to leadership in business she must 
be a good judge of human nature and she must possess 
some talent for direction and for organization. 

She must be able to form quick and accurate judg- 

227 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


merits of men and women. She must be able to measure 
their abilities, to know how to place them to the best 
advantage, and how to get along with them. 

Perhaps you have seen a woman preside at a club 
meeting where the program dragged exasperatingly, 
where there seemed to be no previously outlined plan 
of action, and where three hours were spent in doing 
one hour’s work. Now, if the presiding officer had 
possessed some qualities of leadership, she would have 
planned the entire program in detail before the hour 
of the meeting, and she would have marshalled one 
event after another without a moment’s unnecessary loss 
of time. 

Taking a long look ahead is one of the outstanding 
characteristics of leadership. 

While others think only of the present hour, the 
leader is anticipating, foreseeing, preparing to meet the 
conditions of tomorrow and to take care of possible 
emergencies. A woman executive who possesses a fac¬ 
ulty for leadership looks ahead, a month, a year, yes, 
even ten years. She always is formulating plans for 
getting business in the future. No “ sufficient-unto- 
the-day ” philosophy is incorporated in her creed. 

You have wondered, perhaps, why that exceptionally 
bright young woman remains in a small salaried position 

year after year. Why is she not making progress? 

228 


TRAINING FOR LEADERSHIP 


Why is she not occupying an executive position instead 
of that of a subordinate? 

If you knew her better you likely would discover 
that she is a follower instead of a leader because of 
some small weakness of character which she might 
correct, because of some deficiency of education, some 
personal peculiarity which a little well-directed effort 
might overcome. It may be that she is too slangy, that 
her English is faulty, that she has an uncontrolled tem¬ 
per, or a gossiping tongue. 

There is many a clever woman who, if she would put 
to constructive uses the time she spends in visiting about 
the office, and who, if she were willing to put in some 
extra hours on her work, might achieve an important 
position. The most ambitious woman if she lacks the 
power of concentration will not accomplish much. She 
will not fit herself to lead others until she strengthens 
the weak links in the chain of her abilities. 

Unless a woman has the courage to face enmity, she 
should not think of trying for a position of leadership. 

Just as soon as a woman worker rises above medi¬ 
ocrity and begins to demonstrate more than ordinary 
ability, she becomes a target for criticism and attack. 
One of the oldest human sports known to civilization 
is that of throwing stones at the heads of those men 
and women who have lifted themselves above the crowd. 

Leaders must be able to ignore envy, hatred, and 

229 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


malice and to keep to an inflexible purpose. Sensitive 
women find criticism, especially when it takes the form 
of attack on their character, very painful. Sometimes 
they become so discouraged as to quit the race because 
they cannot stand up under the envious jibes of jealous 
and less successful coworkers. The goal, they feel, 
is not worth all they are made to endure along the way. 

To some extent, a woman executive may be able to 
disarm her jealous competitors and rivals by her kind¬ 
ness and consideration to them. She may win their 
respect by her zeal for work, by her ability as an 
executive, by her loyalty to the cause she is serving. 

Leadership is as natural to some persons as eating 
and sleeping. They were born to take the initiative, to 
gather followers as they go. They have force of 
character. They have a zeal for work, incomprehensible 
to lesser persons. Above all, they love the game. 

Responsibility, which is inseparable from executive 
office and leadership, is a source of development second 
to none. Many a woman does not know what she can 
accomplish until she sets out to achieve what may 
have appeared to her formerly as an almost impossible 
thing. Then she finds that a big responsibility calls 
out all of her reserve forces, that she gains in poise 
and power and resistance, that there have been latent 
within her potentialities that she did not suspect. How 
happy she is when she begins to realize on her talents 

230 


CAN WOMAN DO MAN’S WORK ? 


for leadership, when she feels that she actually is 
“ registering ” in a satisfactory way upon the life of 
the business world. 

Have you ever wondered why so many women who 
seem to carry the heaviest responsibilities in business, 
and whose powers continually are taxed to the utmost, 
remain vigorous and young-looking into advanced age? 

It is because of the mental and spiritual tonic they 
take daily in the form of a realization that they are 
growing stronger and completer, and that they are 
developing in themselves from year to year capacities 
that will serve them when they must encounter greater 
tasks and larger responsibilities. 

Success is a rejuvenator and, more than all other 
forces perhaps, it keeps old age at bay. 

CAN WOMAN DO MAN’S WORK? 

Women perform a great deal of important labor that 
formerly was regarded as man’s work exclusively, not 
only because they are able to do it, but because 
they must. 

Year by year the sphere of woman’s domestic labor 
has contracted, and year by year the sphere of her 
activity in man’s world has expanded. No longer can 
a sharp line be drawn between man’s work and woman s. 
And as his labors have become more interesting to her 
and more remunerative, she has become increasingly 

231 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


eager to claim new offices and activities. Owing to 
her more recent aggressions, almost nothing stands in 
the world of industry as it stood twenty-five years ago. 

Women made their first entrance into business reluc¬ 
tantly. Only those who had the courage to face the 
charge of “ unwomanliness,” or of unsexing them¬ 
selves, could brave public opinion and blaze the trails 
that are now well worn by the feet of millions of women 
in industry and the professions. The opposition could 
only see a young woman out in the world being jostled 
by men, competing with them most unbecomingly, fight¬ 
ing for her rights most ungracefully, and having all the 
lovely bloom rubbed off in the market-place. 

Such sentiments have been waning rapidly, especially 
since the Great War. Even the most enthusiastic sup¬ 
porter of the “ woman-in-the-home ” theory admits 
now that something has happened to the home as well 
as to women; that the home as a center of self-support 
for women practically has ceased to exist. For, whereas 
several women could earn their livings in the home 
two or three generations ago, carrying on its essential 
and varied activities, it often does not now require the 
entire time and energy of even one of the sex. 

The change from the home to the market-place as a 
field of occupation for women came with a suddenness 
for which the world hardly had been prepared. And, 
with the amazing progress that women have made, the 

232 


CAN WOMAN DO MAN’S WORK ? 


world with respect to them is still in a state of read¬ 
justment, women to their new environments, men to 
the idea of feminine competition. Needless to say, 
there can be no such thing as a final and definite adjust¬ 
ment of these problems, for the world is always in a 
state of flux. 

All women who contemplate going into business and 
all women who already are in business are confronted 
by two dangers, one physical, the other, spiritual. 

The physical danger, that of overstrain or fatigue, 
becomes less with every passing year. Hours of labor 
have been shortened to eight or nine in most states 
in the union. The minimum wage law where it is in 
operation seeks to insure to women workers something 
approaching a living wage. The health of women is 
being safeguarded more and more, not only for the sake 
of the individual, but for the protection of the 
human race. 

During the Great War, certain enthusiasts were 
inclined to lose their mental equilibrium and, without 
considering the physical limitations of woman, to claim 
all labor for her province regardless of the burden that 
it laid upon her. Woman’s response was no less enthu¬ 
siastic. In a spirit of patriotic service, she worked in 
munitions factories, she drove a motor-bus, she acted 
as a conductor on tramways and street-cars. With 
the close of the war, and the decline of the war spirit, 

233 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 

this fever for arduous effort began to die out, and, 
fortunately for our civilization, society began to return 
to a more normal way of working and thinking. 

When the first groups of women in industry realized 
that they actually were independent of men, great was 
their sense of exhilaration, and that, in itself, was 
natural enough. They rejoiced that their sex, at last, 
had demonstrated the feasibility of woman “ going on 
her own.” But, unfortunately a few of the newly 
emancipated lost their sense of balance, so much so as 
to become unpleasantly arrogant. In this group, not 
a few of the women workers took a keen delight in 
“ putting it over on the men,” to use the vernacular of 
the street. Women of this type are better known, 
however, in the realm of militant politics. 

“We always knew that we could excel the men,” they 
would say, “ so soon as we had the chance.” And so, 
these women too often have made the mistake of 
working against men instead of working with them. 

This feeling reached its greatest intensity during the 
World War, when so large a number of women were 
called to fill executive positions, when the world was 
startled by the organization of the Russian “ Battalion 
of Death.” This unit saw just enough active service 
to convince the majority of the arrogant sisterhood 
that women were quite equal to any task they 
might undertake. 


234 


CAN WOMAN DO MAN’S WORK ? 

Yet, it is no more feasible for women to claim all 
labor as their province than for men to claim for them¬ 
selves certain offices and functions that only women 
can fulfil. Always there will be certain occupations 
to which women will not be able to bring the necessary 
physical strength and endurance, except at a great sacri¬ 
fice to themselves. No woman was made to tunnel a 
mountain or to dig coal from underground. No woman 
was intended by God to be a ditch-digger or a puddler 
in a steel-mill. A woman may become a successful 
hotel-manager, an architect, or a statistician, and still 
not be fitted to be a railroad engineer. She not infre¬ 
quently excels as a physician or a mathematician, 
although she likely would get beyond her depth if 
she tried to become the president of a railroad or of a 
great university. 

That women do excel in many of the arts, sciences, 
professions, and occupations which formerly seemed to 
be quite out of their reach, all fair-minded persons will 
agree. As time goes on we probably shall see woman’s 
work in the world becoming more clearly defined than 
it is in this era of experimentation and readjustment. 
With a better understanding of her capabilities and her 
limitations, she will be the readier to work with men, 
shoulder to shoulder, not ahead of them, perhaps, and 
certainly not far behind them—but supplementing men’s 
efforts and cooperating with men in a spirit of 
good comradeship. 


235 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


WOMEN AND BIG BUSINESS 

Twenty-five years ago a woman who dared to go into 
business in a large way, and who actually made a 
success, was a nine days’ wonder. She was the out¬ 
standing exception that proved the rule of woman’s 
dependence upon a man’s capital, his business organi¬ 
zation, and his direction and supervision. 

Now, hundreds of women are succeeding in a large 
way. The speed with which they have met the demands 
of business and have adapted themselves to conditions 
wholly unfamiliar to them, is little less than miraculous. 
Nothing in all the “ romance of business ” is so roman¬ 
tic as woman’s rise to situations of eminence in every 
line of activity, from manufacturing to banking, from 
importing to merchandising. Hundreds of women in 
the United States are paying taxes on large incomes of 
their own making, and not a few of them by their 
unaided efforts have become millionaires. 

One young woman who could not borrow $500 on 
the little business she had started, five years later 
refused one half million dollars for a partnership. 

This young woman had inherited a valuable formula 
from her father, who had been a practicing physician. 
She conceived the idea of mixing the ingredients pre¬ 
scribed in the formula in large quantities, and in 
offering for sale an article that is now on nearly every 

toilet goods counter in the nation. The first batch was 

236 


WOMEN AND BIG BUSINESS 

made up in her own kitchen—and how many big busi¬ 
nesses have been started by women in that way. 

Her first sales letters she wrote in longhand. She 
secured a number of impecunious women to make a 
house-to-house canvass for her. Later she made con¬ 
tracts with druggists and department stores. Step by 
step she promoted the sale of her product until she 
was able to build a large plant and earn a handsome 
profit, the reward of ten years’ tireless labor and 
courageous experiment. 

The owner of a large fish market in a southern city 
returned one morning from a business trip and, not 
feeling well, went directly from the railroad station 
to his home. Seeing his pallor, his wife gently repri¬ 
manded him for not taking better care of his health. 
He had been working very hard, she reminded him, and 
he must take a rest. 

“ What would happen to me if I should lose you? ” 
she exclaimed in her eagerness to impress upon him the 
advisability of conserving his strength. “ You know 
that without you I would be the most helpless woman 
in the world.” 

“ Why would you be helpless ? ” returned her hus¬ 
band. “You could take up the business and run it 
just as well as I can.” 

Two hours later the man lay dead. 

As soon as his wife had recovered somewhat from 

237 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


the shock of her loss and from her bereavement, she 
recalled her husband’s expression of confidence in her. 
Although she had been a sheltered woman and had had 
no business experience, she resolved that she would 
make an effort to justify her husband’s faith. 

So soon as she had mastered the detail and routine of 
the business, she began to consider ways and means of 
expanding it. She was operating in a big city, only a 
small per cent, of whose householders purchased fish 
at her market. She was not long in reaching the con¬ 
clusion that the neglect or reluctance of many house¬ 
wives to buy fish was due to the fact that they did 
not know fish; that they never had learned to buy it to 
advantage; that they had only a few recipes for fish 
dishes, and that they frequently did not know how to 
prepare it in the most appetizing ways. 

She suspected that the demand for fish and sea food 
might be doubled, even trebled, if tried and true recipes 
for cooking were offered to all customers. Her first 
step in preparing to offer a personal woman-to-woman 
service of this kind was to learn how to cook every 
kind of fish and sea food to perfection in her own 
kitchen, and how to serve each dish in the most attrac¬ 
tive way. Every spare moment was given to the study 
of the best cook-books and to making experiments on 
her own kitchen range. She was not many months in 
becoming expert, for she had always been an excellent 
cook. She could tell a prospective customer how many 

238 


WOMEN AND BIG BUSINESS 


oysters approximately were in a quart and how many 
shrimps would be required to serve a given number of 
cocktails. She knew by heart the lore of sauces and 
which was served with each particular kind of fish. 

Customers flocked to her from all parts of the city, 
rich and poor, alike, to secure this friendly service. The 
proprietress never was too busy to tell her customer 
how to make a delicious chowder or how to prepare an 
oyster pie. 

Early in her career, this woman had struck one of 
the keynotes of success in business, personal service. 
Almost any one, she found, can conduct a business in 
a cut-and-dried, matter-of-fact manner. It takes 
thought and study and initiative, however, to make a 
customer feel that she has received something from a 
business that is individually and distinctly hers. 

Many women in the United States are succeeding 
in a large way in the candy business, owning factories, 
employing large sales forces, and maintaining branch 
shops in outlying cities. 

One woman who has built up a million-dollar business 
began with an investment of five cents. Her first little 
packages were sold to school children. Then she put 
a few in the corner store. Investing her small profits in 
more material, she made more candy, and it was not 
long until she was kept busy meeting the neighborhood 
demand. Her next effort was to open a tiny shop in an 

239 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 

industrial district. Business girls supplemented their 
noonday lunches with her candies put up in very small 
sacks. Her policy has been to open many small shops, 
each of which does a lively business. She has 
“ arrived,” as the saying is. 

Many other women successfully operate lingerie or 
gift shops. Others of the sex are well adapted, it 
seems, to owning and managing bookstores. A woman 
often has a peculiar faculty for remembering and know¬ 
ing just what kinds of books an endless number of 
customers like. 

Who would be better qualified to make baby caps 
than a woman who loves babies? One woman in our 
country has made a fortune. Her capital stock when 
she started consisted of ten nimble fingers, a good sup¬ 
ply of original ideas, and a genuine sense of the artistic. 
The first caps were fashioned with her own fingers. 
Soon she was employing assistants. A few years, and 
she had to build a factory. She makes not only the 
most adorable headgear for babies and little children, 
but rompers and pinafores and playsuits that would 
delight any mother’s heart. 

Building homes for working people has brought 
handsome returns to one clever and ingenious woman 
who saw the need for houses of modest construction in 
her town, where the housing facilities were not keeping 
pace with the growth of the population and the de- 

240 


WOMEN AND BIG BUSINESS 


mands of the “ tin bucket brigade.” Instead of putting 
up houses in the matter-of-fact fashion in which such 
homes are often constructed in industrial districts, she 
put in a number of little conveniences, without greatly 
increasing the cost of building, that would appeal to 
the eye of the woman and promise a lessening of house¬ 
hold tasks. The houses were purchased almost faster 
than she could build them. Almost before she had 
realized it, she had platted a new addition to the town. 

Later she opened up a new residential district. The 
addition was platted, the sale was advertised for a 
certain day in spring. As a novel attraction the public 
was invited on the opening day to partake of tea al 
fresco. A few close friends were asked to act as assist¬ 
ing hostesses, and the sale was turned into a semi¬ 
social affair. Who but a woman would think of putting 
pink tea trimmings on a public sale of lots? 

More than one woman in the United States is selling 
life insurance at the rate of one million dollars a year. 
Many are in the $100,000 class and not a few are 
attaining regularly the sale of a quarter of a mil¬ 
lion annually. 

Selling insurance is one business a woman can enter 
without much training and with no previous experience. 
Most old line insurance companies give their novices 
instruction free of charge. A few companies acting in 
cooperation with universities are furnishing special 
summer courses to aspirants for the insurance field. 

10 241 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


One woman, without previous training or experience, 
made an almost immediate success in insurance through 
sheer industry and pluck. Her husband had lost his 
fortune in an unsuccessful venture. He was confined 
to a hospital with illness. The doctors’ bills were 
mounting and two children must be provided for. 
Reading in a Sunday newspaper about one of her own 
sex who had succeeded, the wife and mother decided 
to follow in her footsteps. In three years she became 
one of the best saleswomen in the whole country, 
and she now has a big business and an impressive 
bank-account. 

An enterprising young woman whose life had been 
a “ house of mirth,” and whose chief accomplishments 
were bridge, golf, and dancing, discovered one day that 
if she and the members of her family were to continue 
living near Central Park, New York, she would have 
to earn money, not wages, nor a mere salary, but big 
money, and without any unnecessary delay. She was 
so fortunate as to have a very large acquaintance. She 
went to work energetically, and it has been her practice 
to see a good many persons each day. She has sold 
some big policies, and her premiums have been sufficient 
to maintain the home near Central Park. 

Selling life insurance has this advantage—a woman’s 
income from her labor is limited in amount only by her 
ability and her willingness to work. No employer can 
fix wages for her. No board of directors can tell her 

242 


WOMEN AND BIG BUSINESS 


how much she is worth. She fixes her own income, be 
it large or small. 

The effort of woman to enter the realm of big busi¬ 
ness is new; the way is open, the field is large. 

So far she has done only a little pioneering. No one 
dares to predict what her achievements will be within 
the next half-century. 


















CHAPTER X 


JUST A WORD TO EMPLOYERS 



















CHAPTER X 


JUST A WORD TO EMPLOYERS 

A good employer makes a good worker. In any 
event, a good employer makes a better and more efficient 
worker than does an irritable, unreasonable, or indiffer¬ 
ent one. 

The man who plays the game fairly and squarely with 
his private secretary, his clerk, his stenographer, book¬ 
keeper, or other woman worker, and who remembers 
that she is a human being, not unlike the feminine 
members of his own household, will secure from her 
better and more loyal service than the employer who 
takes little thought of a worker’s welfare and happiness, 
or who is unfair or unjust in his treatment of her. 

A common grievance among stenographers is the 
tendency among employers to postpone the work of 
dictation unnecessarily, and then dictate enough letters 
about 4: 30 o’clock in the afternoon to keep a woman 
busy for two or three hours. The day is lengthened out 
uncomfortably; perhaps she misses her hot home din¬ 
ner, or is too late to keep an engagement for a party 
or the play. What more natural than that she should 

be resentful at having to spend the greater part of the 

247 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


day in semi-idleness and then to have four or five hours’ 
normal effort compressed into two or three? 

A reasonable woman is willing enough to work over¬ 
time in an emergency. She may not feel very amiable, 
however, in being kept a couple of hours after closing- 
time because her employer has fiddled around half the 
day on inconsequential matters, or has taken two or 
three hours at noon for his lunch. 

This mood of procrastination, where it is not an 
established habit, usually seizes a man when he has 
some unpleasant task in prospect. In anticipation of 
having to “ fire ” an employee, having to make some 
difficult financial arrangement, his mind is upset, so 
much so that he is indisposed to carry through the 
program of the day. His stenographer, accordingly, 
is the victim, and the work that should have been 
assigned to her when she was fresh and vigorous during 
the earlier hours of the day is allotted to her when 
she is tired and fagged. 

A harsh word, spoken on little, if any, provocation, 
often so disturbs the mental and emotional equilibrium 
of a sensitive woman worker that she cannot produce 
her normal output during the remainder of the day. 

An excellent employer who is nervous and high- 
strung, and who occasionally loses command of him¬ 
self for a moment, wastes no time in repairing such 
damage as his too quick temper may effect. 

248 


JUST A WORD TO EMPLOYERS 


“ Whenever I so far forget myself as to speak 
harshly or irritably to a woman in my office, I invent an 
occasion as quickly as possible to pass a few cheerful 
and good-humored remarks with her, to praise her 
work, or to speak a word of commendation for her 
service to me,” declares this executive, who achieves 
the maximum result in the conduct of his work. “ I 
know that if I do not say the word that will restore 
her poise, a certain mental and physical depression will 
be reflected in her work.” 

How many employers .suffer actual losses in their 
business by losing their tempers, and then being too 
thoughtless or too obstinate to try to restore a worker’s 
good humor and self-esteem! 

It is a great mistake for a floor-manager to reprove 
a saleswoman in the presence of a customer. Whatever 
he has to say in the way of reproach or discipline, he 
should reserve for the girl’s private ear. Neither should 
he correct her within the hearing of her coworkers. 

Impartiality in the treatment of workers should be 
the rule in every office, store, and factory. Nothing is 
more certainly productive of secret resentment and 
restiveness than an uneven distribution of fa\ors. 

Certain employers, taking the course of least resist¬ 
ance, will permit a few women to neglect their work, 
to take hour after hour for their own devices, without 
a word of reproof. Sometimes such women will feign 
illness when they want to slip away for a little pleasure 

249 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


jaunt, or when they want to stay at home and work on 
a new dress. When the vacation rule is two weeks on 
pay, they manage to include an extra week. They are 
highly versatile in finding excuses for their shortcom¬ 
ings, and not uncommonly they give themselves superior 
airs and “ put it all over ” other women workers in 
store or office who are too conscientious to make time on 
their employers or to slight the quality of their work. 

Many an excellent organization has been fairly dis¬ 
rupted by an employer’s thoughtlessly granting every 
conceivable indulgence to those who give the minimum 
in fidelity and service while increasing burdens are laid 
upon the shoulders of those who have manifested a 
desire and a willingness to do all they have been paid 
for and a little more beside. Conscientious workers 
often feel keenly such injustice. In fact, the majority 
of men and women will work contentedly for a lesser 
wage in a place where impartial treatment is meted 
out to all who do their duty, than in a situation where 
benefits go by personal preference and are distrib¬ 
uted carelessly. 

When a business is not prospering, its executives 
may forestall unrest and dissatisfaction if, instead of 
refusing increases in wages and salaries, they take that 
matter up with their workers directly before the ques¬ 
tion has been raised. 

An employer may easily make occasion for saying 
to one of his good workers: 

250 


JUST A WORD TO EMPLOYERS 


“We have been wanting very much to increase your 
salary. You have been with us a good while, and you 
have given us excellent service. We have talked the 
matter over, but we cannot see our way to increasing 
wages when we are making a small profit, or no profit 
at all. We hope that it will not be long before we shall 
be doing better, both for you and for ourselves.” 

A few timely remarks of this character will save a 
worker the pain and humiliation of being refused an 
increase in wages, and it will spare the employer the 
embarrassment of having to say, “ No.” 

How often does the employer whose income is from 
$10,000 to $20,000, and whose wife regularly takes 
advantage of special sales in dry-goods, millinery, and 
department stores, think about granting the women in 
his office an occasional hour in which to buy a $40 dress 
for $25, or to pick up a couple of pairs of shoes for 
half price? 

If an employer will tell his women workers, granting, 
of course, that his force is small,—it would be impos¬ 
sible in a large organization,—that if they wish to take 
advantage of a special sale occasionally, he will give 
them the necessary time, it will be the rare woman who 
is disposed to abuse that kindly privilege. Rather will 
such well-favored women workers feel inclined to repay 
that service over and over. A special dispensation for 
Christmas shopping is another thoughtful act. 

A sympathetic word or a thoughtful attention in time 

251 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 

of illness, or when a woman worker is passing through 
some severe personal difficulty, touches her heart and 
inspires her to the making of a greater effort when 
she is back to normal again. 

The habits of dictation formed when a man was 
beginning in business, and when he had to content 
himself with a $10 or $i5~a-week stenographer, may 
remain with him through the years, much to the dis¬ 
comfiture of his $40 or $5o-a-week secretary. How 
often she wishes that he would leave the details of 
punctuation to her, and how it does get on her nerves 
when he dictates much as follows: 

“ In r eply to yours of the tenth instant, comma, I 
beg to say that we are forwarding the contract to you, 
comma, and that we hope that the terms of it will so 
meet with your approval that you will sign it and return 
it to us within the coming week, period.” 

It is trying to a highly skilled stenographer to have 
her employer tell her where to place every capital letter 
and when to start each new paragraph. She wishes 
that he would treat her less like a novice and more like 
the efficient, high-priced worker that she is. 

Many a private secretary could lighten her employer’s 
labors if he would manifest more confidence in her. 
She could write a great many of the letters that he 
dictates to her even to “ Dear Sir ” and “ Yours truly.” 
A clever woman likes to take some responsibility and to 
be given an opportunity to demonstrate her resource- 

252 


JUST A WORD TO EMPLOYERS 

fulness. If her employer could get into the way of 
leaving his less important correspondence to her, she 
could handle much of his business promptly while he 
is out of the city and away from his office, with the 
result that he would find a desk partially cleared upon 
his return. 

Yet, even in this day of widening opportunities for 
women, and after their repeated demonstrations of 
good judgment and ability, there are men who cling to 
the belief that all women are merely grown-up children 
and that none can work successfully without being 
directed every step of the way. 

No reasonable woman worker expects her employer 
to refrain from smoking in her presence. Certainly 
she does not expect him to rise when she enters, nor 
does she take offense when he fails to remove his hat. 
There are times and occasions, however, when she won¬ 
ders if he does not regard her as a stick of furniture 
in his office, those times, for instance, when he blows 
smoke into her face or puts his feet on her desk. She 
wonders why he cannot remember that she is a 
woman, not unlike his wife, his sister, daughter, or 
women friends. 

Many an employed woman who would not tell a lie 
to serve her own purposes is expected to prevaricate 
glibly and cheerfully for her employer’s convenience. 
She must say that he is out of town and will not return 
until Wednesday, when he is not ten feet distant from 

253 


TO WOMEN OF THE BUSINESS WORLD 


the telephone. She is told to assure an impatient cus¬ 
tomer that his order has been filled and that it is on the 
way, when it has not left the store or the factory. 
Hardest and most embarrassing of all is it for her to 
make misrepresentations to her employer’s wife at 
his demand. 

No man who employs a stenographer has a right to 
expect her to serve his wife in the same manner unless 
that has been a part of the agreement, or unless she has 
much leisure time. To be summoned to his home by 
his wife to write letters for her to the various members 
of the family and to friends is an imposition. Likewise, 
she should not be expected to carry on his wife’s club 
and committee work. 

It is a severe trial to a worker’s good humor and 
patience, especially if she be already burdened, when 
her employer’s wife, with a limousine to ride in and 
servants at her command, rushes into the office one 
morning and asks the stenographer or secretary to run 
a dozen errands for her. 

Will Miss Smith go to the 3 o’clock train and meet 
Mr. Jones’s relations—she has a game of bridge on for 
that hour? Couldn’t she stop on the way back to the 
office and match this piece of silk? Will not Miss 
Smith go over her bank statement for her—she never 
can get head or tail to it? Miss Smith writes such a 
beautiful hand—will she not address the invitations to 
her tea of next week? The parlor-maid is leaving— 

254 


JUST A WORD TO EMPLOYERS 


isn’t that too exasperating? Will not Miss Smith tele¬ 
phone to the employment office for her—she must hurry 
if she keeps that appointment with the milliner—and 
see what they have in the way of maids ? 

If an executive calls in his secretary to do a piece 
of emergency work for a friend or business asso¬ 
ciate, he should introduce the friend something in 
this manner: 

“ This is Mr. Brown, Miss Smith. He is in haste 
to finish up a matter. Will you please take a few 
letters for him?” 

This simple introduction smooths the way both for 
Miss Smith and Mr. Brown. 

Every woman longs to look up to her employer, to 
admire him, even to discover something heroic in his 
character. He gives no sounder demonstration of 
ability than when he is able so to direct and to manage 
the men and women working under him that they 
feel inspired to render to him the maximum of 
efficient service and loyalty, and that they are im¬ 
pelled to respect him for his honesty, his fairness, and 
his sense of justice in dealing with them or any situation 
that may arise. 

The man who can, and who will, create this happy 
condition in his business is making a handsome con¬ 
tribution to the sum total of happiness in this world. 







*<• r\ y 


*v : 







































